So on Friday, the 25th, our first full day on vacation in the US started at4:30am, when Lilli woke up. We snuggled together in bed until Tipton got up around 4:50. We played upstairs for a while, then went downstairs and had toast for breakfast. Then back upstairs to play some more.
Later that morning, Tipton stayed home with Papa to play Wii while Grama Kay and Lilli and I went to the grocery store. I was overwhelmed - in a good way. I had forgotten how much bigger the stores here are, and how many more choices there are - of everything!
The kids had chicken nuggets and frozen pizza for lunch. Then we went out in the backyard to play. I had gotten each of the kids a big ball to play with outside. Everything was going fine until Lilli tripped and scraped her knee on one of the stepping stones in the garden. It took a while to get her cleaned up and calmed down.
Then we went to the library. Grama Kay let us borrow her library card and we checked out a giant stack of books for the kiddos. The library closed at 5:00, so we drove to the park just up the hill from the library. We had the park to ourselves - just me and Tipton and Lilli. Grama Kay and Papa had to pick up Tipton and Lilli's cousins, so they weren't with us. Lilli was walking/balancing on the timbers that mark off the playground. I was keeping an eye on her because there was a steep drop off on one side. Meanwhile, Tipton was jumping for the 'zip line' bar. He made it once, but didn't have enough force behind him to make the bar move, so he was trying again. I was standing right next to him, but keeping a watchfull eye on Lilli. Tipton jumped a second time. He caught the bar with his right hand, but couldn't get his left hand up before he slipped and fell. Onto his right arm. He screamed. He had broken his arm. I had been talking with a friend from NC on the phone. I hung up on them. I carried Tipton to the car and dialed Kay. As I buckled the kids in I told her that we were at the playground and that Tipton had just fallen and broken his arm. And where did I need to go? She said we were very near an urgent care/emergency room. She talked to me and gave me directions all the way there. I ended up having to slam on the breaks and weave between some construction barrels because I had missed the turn because I was going so fast. Meanwhile, Tipton is in the backseat screaming and crying all the way there. Even though it seemed like it took forever to get there, in fact it only took about five minutes.
I carried Tipton into the emergency room and cut in front of an elderly couple. I just stood there, in full panic, while Tipton continued to scream. Lilli was trying to explain to the woman behind the desk that Tipton had tripped and gotten a boo-boo and that he needed a bandaid. The woman at the desk calmly picked up the phone and said "We have someone who needs to be seen right away." Then someone came and took us back to exam room 3.
The nurse asked what happened. I explained that he was jumping for a bar on the playground and fell. And that we thought the arm was broken. His left arm, just behind the wrist bones. She asked when it had happened and I told her "Five minutes ago." Then the nice, calm woman from the front desk came in and started taking our personal information. She asked for a photo ID and my insurance card. I explained that we have lived in Sweden for the past 18 months and were only here visiting family. We no longer had US insurance. And in fact we'd barely been in the country for 24 hours. Their father was still in Sweden and their grandparents, whom we were staying with, were picking up their cousins at the moment. I gave her much more information than she had asked for. I tend to babble when I'm between panic and terrified. They propped Tipton's left arm on a soft pillow. I asked them if they could cover his arm, as it was upsetting Tipton to see it. It was certainly upsetting ME to see it. His arm is not usually bent like the letter 'S'. They gave him some motrin around 6:00 and said that someone from x-ray would be in soon. That it was most certainly broken, but that they would need x-rays to see the extent of the injuries.
There was a tv in the room. Lilli and I watched some form of America's Funniest Home Videos - some special animal edition while we waited. But all I kept seeing was Tipton falling, and then his broken arm. The motrin relaxed Tipton enough that he was able to doze off (remember, we'd been awake since before 5:00am.) They came around 6:15 and took him for x-rays. The woman was very careful and tried very hard not to touch or bump or move Tipton's arm. I think that was the most painful part of the entire hospital stay - getting the x-rays. Then he was wheeled back to his room. They came in and gave him tylenol with codiene around 7:00. Then the doctor came in and had me come out to a desk to view the x-rays on the computer. The break was pretty clean, angled slightly downward (I'm still not sure what that means.) It was not in the growth plate, and the nerves and blood vessels seemed to be intact. The doctor did not think it would require surgery. The orthopedic doctor would be able to confirm that, however, the ortho doctor was in surgery for the next two hours.
A little while later two nurses came in to put Tipton in a 'sugar tong' cast. They were wonderful! They were so gentle that it didn't hurt Tipton at all. The cast started at the tips of his fingers and runs along the bottom of his arm downs around his elbow and then along the top of his arm back to the tips of his fingers. It is held in place with two ace bandages. They they put his arm in a sling. They gave him three stickers and a safe-T pop. They also gave me a safe-T pop for Lilli, who had fallen asleep in my arms. The doctor explained that I would need to call the orthopedic doctor on Monday to schedule an appointment to have the fracture reduced (to have them set the break) and to get him a real/more permanent cast. A lab tech brought me a cd with his x-rays on it, I signed a bunch of papers and Tipton was released.
Kay and George were waiting for us in the lobby. They had been there for at least 10 minutes but hadn't been let back to see us. And they didn't tell me that they were there or I would have taken Lilli out to them.
We went out to the car and Kay drove me and the kids home. We stopped at the grocery store and I ran in and bought tylenol and motrin for Tipton. As an impulse buy I grabbed a copy of Scooby Doo. When we got home I made Tipton some blueberry waffles and put on the Scooby Doo movie. Then I started making phone calls.
I called our friends from NC, the ones I was talking to when Tipton fell, to explain what had happened. And also to let them know that we probably wouldn't make it for dinner Monday night like we had planned, because we wouldn't be able to drive to NC on Monday - we would hopefully be seeing the ortho doc on that day.
Kay and I ordered chinese food for dinner and George ran out and got it for us. Tipton had fallen asleep while watching the video. I carried him upstairs and got him to bed. He couldn't sleep in the top bunk because he couldn't climb the ladder with just one arm. (Papa had bought and assembled bunk beds just for their visit.) So we put him to sleep in the bottom bunk. Then I carried Lilli upstairs and put her to bed (I'd just laid her down on the couch when we came home from the hospital.) I put her to bed in my bed, again.
So, on our first official day of vacation here in the US, Tipton broke his arm. That was definitely NOT on the list of things to do that I had made to keep the children occupied while we were in VA.
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