Memory Monday 2

February 21st 1993

Age 10

It was nice enough to be outside playing on a February afternoon so that's exactly what Luke was doing. Luke had a neighborhood friend over named Greg Johnson and the two of them were playing with the tether ball pole that afternoon. The pole was pretty much just a tire with cement in the middle and a pole to make it stand as a tether ball anchor. They decided to tip it over and make it into an axle with another spare tire they had. So between the two of them they tipped it over. With Luke at the heavy base, Greg let go of his lighter side to pick up the spare tire so he could put it on his end of the pole. He let go and when he did, the pole snapped up and it landed right on Luke's leg trapping him between the heavy cement filled tire and the ground. Luke screamed out in pain and Amy came running. She pushed the cement tire off his leg as she pried his leg free. Luke told them to call 911, but they decided to run and get their neighbor, Joyce who is a nurse first. Joyce came running and between her and Cade, they picked up Luke, put him in the back of the car and drove him up to Lakeview hospital. When they were picking him up, his leg bent and they could clearly see that it was broken. Larry and Holly were at the temple that afternoon, but no one knew what temple they were at. At the time, the Bountiful temple wasn't built yet so his parents could have been anywhere. They had to call the Ogden, Salt Lake and Jordan River temples to try and locate them. Since Cade was 18 at the time, he was old enough to sign the waver so that they could put Luke in traction. Luke was in the hospital for 3 weeks and four days and in a {half} body cast for three more weeks.

Luke always liked to eat golden grahams for breakfast and really didn't like the hospital food.

They had to put one long screw about the size of a pencil through his shin bone. They hooked it onto a pully system so that his leg wouldn't heal short. The incision from where they inserted the screw would itch so Luke would use a Q-tip to scratch it. 

The Johnsons let Luke borrow their Nintendo so that he could play in the hospital. 

The following morning, Looney Tunes were on the TV. The episode that was on that morning was of Sylvester the cat and the dog torturing each other. They also had broken legs and were in the hospial. 

Luke was in a lot of pain. He would have muscle spasms that would cause his broken bones to tap each other. 

But he had a lot of visitors over the course of his 3 week stay. Here he is with Greg and Dana.

And Amy making a beautiful Veigel face. 

When Luke got home, he was in a half body cast where he sat around for three more weeks. He loved playing this skateboard game.

He spent most of the time on the couch playing more Nintendo. He never liked to go out because he was embarrassed about his cast. He didn't even let anyone sign it. Someone in the ward made him the candy graham poster in this picture. 

When they took the cast off, it hurt to bend his knee and his leg itched like crazy. He had a little bit of nerve damage and his leg was slightly bowed, but it straightened out after a little while.  For physical therapy, he would go walk in the water at the bubble and to help increase his range of motion in his knee, he would bend it in a tub of hot water.

This was the only bone that Luke ever broke, but he sure made it count. He broke it on February 21st and was on crutches for a while, but on May 23rd, his birthday, he was able to walk on his own.