Give Me a Break!

Today was set up to be a typical busy but nice Saturday, with a few perks built in: Miciah ran the last mile of the Flying Pig Kids' Marathon in the morning; we were planting flowers in the afternoon; and I was invited to a luncheon with some girlfriends of mine, including a friend from out of town that I haven't seen in months.

The Flying Pig went well. Rob went with Miciah (while I slept in with the boys). Miciah met up with a friend from her soccer team and they ran the mile together. When they got home, Miciah was excited to show me her poster from the race. Very cool.

Then Rob and I planted flowers. We let the kids help us pick the spots for the flowers they'd picked out, and they helped us water them in. Super relaxing and fun--a perfect Saturday activity.

And then on to the girlfriend luncheon at Panera, my favorite restaurant. I was a few bites into my soup and salad when the phone rang. It was Rob with this line: "I think Miciah broke her arm." My response: "Come again?" So, while my friends were chitchatting and eating yummy food, I was helping Rob come up with a plan of action. Okay, plan is to drop the kids off with neighbors and then I will come home as soon as I am done eating and Rob can be with Miciah at the hospital while I am at home with the boys. No problem. I continued eating.

Rob called again. Problem: I have the insurance card in my purse. New plan: I will finish eating (hey, I had JUST STARTED EATING when he called. And it's not like it was a hamburger or something that I could just eat in the car on the way. Plus it's Panera. Must finish eating), then hop in the car and meet them at the hospital, and THEN go home and be with the boys. Good plan.

As I was leaving, my friend, Nicole, who is also my Visiting Teacher, said, "Hey, I'm your Visiting Teacher, what can I do for you?" What luck, eh?, to have my Visiting Teacher there. She offered to go pick up the boys and take them to her house for the day. I told her that I wouldn't rush at the hospital, then. THAT is an even better plan.

Okay. So I got to the hospital and they took me right back to Rob and Miciah in a trauma room. She hadn't gotten any drugs yet, so her eyes were full of pain. And her arm. Her arm was at least double, if not triple the normal size. ... I'm a wimp. I had to sit down. Repeatedly. Arms should not look like that. Good thing Rob was there to be the strong one.

So how did she break her arm? The neighbor boy, Tyler, challenged her to jump off the swings. Now these aren't like industrial playground swings. They're our backyard swings on our rink-a-dink swingset. She jumped and landed on her elbow (left arm). Rob said there was a hard bulge just above the elbow (at first. You couldn't see the bulge later, cause it was so swollen that the whole ARM was that big) and Miciah screamed if he touched it. ... Usually we're the "shake it off" type of parents, but not with this one. Rob knew it was either broken or dislocated, and he was betting it was just dislocated.

The X-ray showed it was not just dislocated but completely 100% broken through. Like so:
That bone is supposed to be straight.

So they came back to us and said that not only was it broken, it was the worst break it could be (a 3 on a 3 grade scale), and she'd need surgery. Now I may be stupid, but I wasn't aware they did surgery for arm breaks. Seriously. The nurse said, "You guys will probably want to prepare for an extended stay. Probably overnight." Overnight?! For a broken arm?

Luckily my Visiting Teacher is VERY nice, and she not only watched the boys until 9:30 tonight, but she's also taking them as long as we need tomorrow. I owe her cookies. Lots and lots of cookies.

Anyways, the surgery was tentatively scheduled for tonight at about 8 p.m. It had to be so late because Miciah ate lunch around noon. They can't put you under until a while after you've eaten. Figures, right? ... The surgery didn't happen, though, because another kid came in with a more serious trauma, and he got first dibs. They said Miciah MIGHT be able to get in tonight, but it would be late, and if they just decided on tomorrow morning, then she could eat dinner tonight. She was happy about dinner.

Miciah kind of wigged out when they first started talking about the surgery and the cast they'll put on her. "I don't want a cast!" and "I don't want surgery!" The nurse said, "No one WANTS surgery." Good answer, but Miciah was still freaking out. So before they put on the temporary splint, they were sure to give her another good dose of "happy drugs". Lots of morphine, I imagine, and some other things as well. Miciah started saying, "I feel like I'm floating. And the walls are kind of swirly." Which is when the doctor said, "That means it's time to put on your splint." And that's why people voluntarily take morphine.

I missed a lot of this because I had to run home again to grab overnight stuff for Rob and Miciah. So Rob is camping out on a hospital couch bed, and I'm at home with the boys, about ready to crash myself. We're all exhausted (I've said it before, but I'm saying it again: it's amazing how tiring it is to wait in a hospital room).

Hopefully tomorrow goes well and Miciah will come home in the afternoon. That's what they initially told us, but who knows, I guess. I think, with as dramatic as Miciah can get, that it's going to be an interesting few weeks.