The first graders are studying balance and motion, so yesterday they took a field trip to the bowling alley. Have you ever been in a bowling alley full of six year olds? The noise level is indescribable. Liam loves bowling but didn't play all that well and he was pretty irritated with himself, but I think he was still having fun, and it was a good chance for me to get to know his teachers a little bit and to see some of the other parents.
After lunch they got on the buses and went to Hugh MacRae Park to burn off some of that energy. When I got there Liam was running like a maniac with two of his friends, around the play structure, up the ladders, down the slides, but not too long after we got there he was accidentally pushed from behind as some of them were going down one of those big covered slides, and when he got to the bottom he was hurt. His teacher brought him over to me and he was crying so hard he was nearly incoherent. Another mama who was a former EMT checked out his arm and said it needed to be X-rayed, so off to the ER we went.
We were there for what seemed like a long time. Liam was in a lot of pain and scared to move his arm because it hurt to do it, so every time we needed to move it was an exercise to get him up and going. I saw the X-rays; it was clearly broken in two places, and one of the bones was way out of line and looked really deformed. That was going to be very painful to reset, so the ER doctor wanted him to see the orthopedist.
More waiting, then the orthopedist finally showed up and decided that he would have to do his thing with Liam under sedation, so we had to wait for an OR to become available. Then he decided to wait a little bit longer, to be completely sure that Liam had nothing on his stomach. So Sweetie left to go home to shower and take his work truck home-he didn't want to leave his tools in the parking lot and we only live a few blocks from the hospital. I was glad he went, because that meant he could bring Boo back with him (Liam's beloved stuffed dog).
Liam had been doing really well until this point, but all the waiting was really taking a toll on him and the hours from around 5:00 to 8:00 were long ones, with frequent crying sessions. He was starting to freak out a bit and the way he processes things involves a lot of repetition, which can get fairly nerve-wracking for the person on the receiving end. Mercifully, he was able to sleep some of this time. He was in a really small bed with no rails and half of it was taken up by the pillows that the nurses had propped up under his arm, which was splinted to a board. I was afraid that he was going to turn over in his sleep and fall out of bed, so I sat on a stool by the side of the bed just in case.
They came to move him to the OR waiting area around 7:30. He loved being moved in a big bed with wheels and was starting to feel like this was an adventure. He was highly entertaining and had the nurses and anesthesiologist rolling with his pronouncements. Boo was by his side, and the OR nurses were so sweet--when they brought Liam a cap to cover his hair, Boo got one, too.
I'm usually pretty hot-natured, but it was cold enough to hang meat in the surgical waiting room. I hadn't eaten in hours and neither had Sweetie, so we grabbed some Nabs from the vending machine and had "supper," then he dozed for a bit and I went outside to call my mama. The surgery took almost no time at all and they didn't have to make any incisions; they were able to manipulate the bone back into place.
When we went into the recovery room he was surrounded by the OR team, and I think we could have commanded a fair price if we'd taken a notion to auction him to the highest bidder. He came through it beautifully and they had only put a soft cast on it; he'll see the orthopedic surgeon in a week to see if they need anything more or if this will be sufficient. They kept him long enough to make sure that the anesthesia was not going to make him sick, and then we went upstairs to try to get some food into him. He managed a few bites of chocolate pudding, then we brought him home.
Thankfully he is fine. So far today he's not in too much pain and seems pretty cheerful. I feel like I've been run over by a truck, but I'm very grateful that things weren't much worse.
Oh poor Liam.I hope he heals up fast.
Posted by: emily | August 25, 2005 at 10:49 AM
Poor baby! Tell him we all hope he mends quickly - and you get some rest after your ordeal.
Posted by: kenju | August 25, 2005 at 03:19 PM
Well, that's certainly one full school day, isn't it? Poor thing! Hope he heals up soon!
Posted by: Jennifer | August 26, 2005 at 07:00 AM
Boy...that's a memory from first grade he'll never forget! Sorry for the poor little guy (and mom!)...hope he's feeling better soon!
Posted by: E | August 26, 2005 at 08:39 AM
Oh, I'm so sorry. I broke my wrist at the start of second grade and it HURTS. But not for very long, and I did get a lot of cool attention at school. Or so I seem to remember.
Hope he heals fast and the soft cast does the trick.
Posted by: Jody | August 27, 2005 at 10:49 AM
Oh, poor guy (and poor you, of course.)
I also have memories of breaking my arm in second grade - do we all pick that age range, or what?
Take care...
Posted by: Betsy | August 30, 2005 at 09:53 AM