One ER visit in 10 years!

After ten years (next week) of parenting, we had our very first ER visit last night. Broken arm. It'd be great if we can keep the once-every-ten-years thing going and not go again 'til the kids are all teenagers. They might not cry quite as much then. So who was it? Not one of the boys who spent their day at a Rail Jam (for all you non-snowboarders that's when they ride through a park full of wooden and metal features, ie. rails and boxes). How did it happen? Not sledding like crazy on a steep and bumpy hill at a birthday party with big kids. It happened doing just about nothing in our playroom. It happened to Princess Eee. She jumped off the gymnastics mats, she and Zippy collided, she fell down on the carpeting. She fell really wrong because she came upstairs screaming in a higher pitch than usual, and when J pulled up the sleeve of her dress, we saw that her arm was obviously broken. It was bent sideways a couple inches above her wrist.

J got ready to take her to the hospital, and she tried to stop crying once she realize she was going to have to go somewhere. She said, "All done, Mommy." Once she understood that J was going to stay with her the whole time the doctors looked at her arm, and that I would be here waiting with her pajamas when she got home, she was fine about going. Luckily it was a Saturday in winter which means the orthopedic doc on call was already there dealing with several ski injuries, so their wait time wasn't too bad. They arrived a little after 6pm, and they were home by 9pm. BUT, they came home without having it set. She broke her ulna and radius clean across, so to set her arm meant she had to be sedated which meant she had to have an empty stomach. We'd just had dinner before the kids went to play in the playroom. Bit of a rough night tossing and turning with her in between us waiting for it to be time to take her back to the hospital. J took her at 6:30 to be there for a 7am appointment. I met them there at 8:30 and brought Ali home by 9:30. She was pretty miserable for awhile. And she threw up the little bit she managed to eat after we got home. It is several hours later now, and we have not had a repeat performance of that. But, if Princess Eee says, "Yo sick" it means she might be about to throw up.

She has a cast from her hand to above her elbow for three weeks and then a shorter cast for another three weeks. No skiing for the first three weeks, then she can do everything she normally does. She asked J last night while they were waiting for her Xray if she could still go skiing today. Extra bummer because it was 38 degrees and sunny most of the day and everyone we know played outside in some fun way today. Instead the girls and I stayed inside, watched two movies, played with Leapsters, and had lots of snacks (after the throwing up part of the day seemed to have passed).

Here's the dress I made for Princess Eee during the second movie since her normal dresses and long sleeved shirts won't fit for the next six weeks. It's made from old T-shirts that I had around the house and it has bell sleeves so it should fit over her cast.


And here's the patient: