Summer here is following its usual routines. Gardening, pool time, Wii time, and just enjoying more moments of free time. I have been trying to take advantage of the school break to get some extra sewing and knitting in, but the last several days has been too hot to mess with the quilting, and thus we've been in the pool a lot, so the knitting is at a minimum too. At least with the knitting I can take it outside and sit on the swing while playing lifeguard for those in the pool. Many times I am in the pool with them, and if I'm not, then I'm chasing Isaac around the yard. Sometimes he just stays in one area and I can sit and knit, but even that isn't happening as much as I thought it would.
Still, the summer days are rushing by, and we are trying to enjoy each one. Before I know it I'll be organizing and getting ready to start the new school term.
Yesterday was a lazy day for us for the most part. The weeding was all caught up, and it has been so very dry here, that the weeds are even having a hard time. A good friend stopped by for coffee in the morning, and we chatted for a couple of hours. In the afternoon the kids and I hankered down in the AC in the Rec area and watched "Tangled"... yet again. I've only seen it twice. The kids have watched it a million times since Grandma gave it to them. It is a really cute movie! Fun to watch, and enough sophisticated humor to keep the adults interested. (Please note: I use the words "sophisticated" and "adult" here VERY loosely for some people. Ahem.)
Esther and Caleb had gone upstairs at one point and she came down a couple minutes later holding her left hand saying Caleb hurt her finger. The poor girl wasn't kidding. I could see the tears forming in the corner of her eyes and wondered what on earth could have happened in such a short amount of time. There was no bang, thud, or yelling or anything when they were upstairs either. Her left pinkie was VERY swollen and discolored.
Apparently Caleb climbed over our toddler gate into the kitchen, then as Esther was following she lost her balance and instinctively reached out to balance herself, and ended up giving a little push to Caleb. Caleb, who thought it was on purpose, turned to swat her hand off and ended up hitting the base of her pinkie with his bony knuckle. She didn't think anything of it at first, but then it started to really hurt, and she couldn't move it at all.
I had her put an ice pack on it (a.k.a.... frozen peas)and we watched the rest of the movie.
By then Benjamin and two of his friends, Tim and Devon, had come by to ask if they could buy some gas off of us. I had no problem with that but didn't know how much Dale had paid for it, so I told them to wait until he got home. I figured they would go out and go swimming or do whatever but they all camped out there in the Rec area, probably to take advantage of the AC.
When Dale got home, he was in high demand. Esther got first shot at him due to her injury, so he took a look at that. After icing it for almost two hours, the swelling hadn't gone down much. Also, if you looked at it from the side, it almost looked like it was dislocated, though with the swelling it really was hard to tell. I was trying to get an answer from Dale about taking her to the Urgent Care center. I'm not one to just run up there at every bump and bruise, but after all the icing it didn't look any better, and it still was hurting her, though not as badly as at first I don't think. All I could think of was that line in "Finding Nemo" when the dad is asking Nemo if he felt any rushing fluid, how that could mean a break. Meanwhile Tim and Devon were giving her tips on how to relocate the dislocated joint (as if either one of them had a medical degree). She kind of looked at her finger, and then pulled hard and let it fall back into place. Okay, honestly, makes me cringe, but it did look straighter after that. It was still swollen and hurt though, and I was trying to talk to Dale, but the boys had gotten impatient and started asking about buying gas and I couldn't get a firm answer. Finally Devon mentioned about a makeshift splint made out of a Popsicle stick, so I took Esther upstairs and wouldn't you know it I couldn't find the first aid kit?
I called Dale up and the three ring babbling circus followed him, all talking at once. Dale had Isaac in his arms, and found the first aid kit on one of the top shelves of the bathroom closet, all the way to the back. I found a Popsicle stick easily enough, then wrapped Esther's finger in a splint.
"Mom, is it supposed to be that tight?"
"Yes. I don't want you to move your finger."
I wished I could gauze the boys' mouths shut for 5 minutes so I could talk with Dale and figure out if I should take her up to Urgent Care or not.
Ah, inspiration!
No, not the gauze. But I kicked Esther out of the bathroom and shut and locked the door while everyone was out in the kitchen. Isaac was still in Dale's arms watching the whole proceeding with interest, but that was fine.
After a brief and uninterrupted conference, it was decided to just go ahead and take her up to see what we were dealing with. Esther's finger was too swollen to really tell if it was broken or not, and still didn't have much range of motion.
"I'll take her up if you want," Dale said.
"No, no.. that's okay, I'll do it."
Okay, true confession: It was not a selfless act of the love of a mother. A chance to get in the air conditioning for a couple hours? Without the swarm of magpies? Are you kidding? Yeah, I think I can handle a trip up to the Urgent Care center.
While we were getting ready to go, Elizabeth asked if she could tag along. Since it was just us three, I drove the Tracker up. Yes, I
can drive a standard, thankyouverymuch. Aren't you proud, Dad?
We got there and got registered and waited our turn. Esther got called in for the preliminaries, and then we were back out in the waiting room. Elizabeth was on her Ipod, pleased as punch there was a free wi-fi connection, and Esther was reading, I was knitting (in the air conditioning... yes!) when a young couple and their little son came in.
From what I overheard (nosey, aren't I?) he had fallen on the playground and bumped the back of his head pretty good. The dad was holding him against his shoulder, his hand holding an ice pack, bloodied, on the little boys' head. I felt so bad for them! Head injuries can be very scary, especially in little ones. The boy was probably around 4 or maybe 5. He looked so miserable, my heart went out to them. I wanted to assure the mom, who kept pacing back and forth, that it would be okay. From where I sat, it looked like the bleeding had stopped, or at least significantly slowed. Then I realized there
was something I could do. You see, I know and remember very well that feeling in the pit of your stomach when your child is hurt. Not hurt like how Esther was hurt. I wasn't worried about it, and knew it would be fine. No "worst case scenarios" for her injury scared me. Worst case for her was a splint on her finger for a couple weeks. Big whoop.
But when blood is involved your imagination as a mother, runs rampant. I could see it on the little boys' mom's face now, and my heart just went out to her. I wanted to tell her don't worry, by this time tomorrow he'll never even care what happened today, it's going to be fine... I could have gone over to her and talked to her, but just then Esther was called in and inspiration hit. I whispered a quick inquiry to Esther, who agreed totally with my plan, as did Elizabeth, though I hated to tell her that her opinion didn't really matter as she wasn't the injured party, and spoke to the nurse as she waited for Esther.
"Can the little boy with the head injury go ahead of us? Esther's injury isn't bad, she can wait."
"Let me check if he is registered, " she said pleasantly.
"Oh, he just got registered, " I replied. We had seen them go through the process.
"Oh, okay. Let me just check real quick," and she was off.
She came back and said they couldn't just push him ahead because there was quite a number of people between us.
"We will be getting him in sooner though because of his head injury, " she explained.
Not good enough for me.
"Well, can we just trade places then? He can go now, and we'll wait for when his turn would be."
Esther and Elizabeth echoed their agreement to that plan.
She looked surprised and then smiled brightly.
"We can do that. That is very kind of you! It will be a bit of a wait, " she reminded me.
"No problem," I assured her.
So we sat back down, and just as we were getting settled the little boy was called in. We never found out how it all ended for the little tyke, but that is okay. It was just the right thing to do.
Esther had an x-ray done, and thankfully nothing was broken. It was classified as a sprain. She has a temporary splint to wear, but can take it off to bathe, or swim, but NO rough housing for a few days.
By the time we got home it was after 8pm, and we were ravenously hungry, but not minding the reason for the delay.
