Yesterdays Adventure!

I’m not writing this for more sympathy but because I need to write about my experiences in order to process them. Plus some of yesterday’s adventure is quite humorous! And I apologize for the length of this writing but an adventure shouldn’t only take a paragraph to retell!

Preface: My little one and I have made it our Monday morning ritual to stay in our pajamas to take my oldest to school. We wear hoodies & slippers and since we drop her off at the front door while still in the car no one but us knows. Every time we do this I think to myself “This will be the morning the car brakes down and we’ll have to walk home in our jammies.” But we do it anyway!

Preface #2: My oldest daughter is a drama queen! I’m not exaggerating or being unkind, she just is. When she was 3 or 4 she “hurt” her arm and spent an hour holding it in position and not letting us look at it…as soon as I said, ok were going to the doctor she was miraculously healed! With her a splinter and a broken arm are the same amount of pain so it always hard to gage whats "real" and whats not. So it might seem mean but I tend to use tough love with her and owies, a kiss and your ok is all I’ll give into most of the time.

Preface #3: I am not good in emergencies! I can function but I’d much rather follow directions then make decisions on my own.

So yesterday (a Monday) We dropped big sis off at school like always. Our big plans for the day included cleaning the bathroom & going to Target. My little one was watching cartoons and I had started my morning chat with my mom when the other line beeped. I switched over and it was big sister's school saying she had fallen off the monkey bars and hurt her arm and was crying. So I quickly stripped off my pajama pants and threw on dirty jeans from the day before & put my slippers back on….not much of an improvement but…littleone was in a nightgown so I added sweat pants and shoes to her outfit, though the giant knot of hair in the back of her head was really the piece de resistance! Lol

We got to the school and headed straight to the nurse’s office, a friend of ours and her youngest daughter happen to be walking by when they saw my daughter and were sitting with her when I got there. I was grateful that both of us had a friend in that moment! I really thought I’d get there give her a kiss and use that tough love to spend her back to class. But she wouldn’t let me touch her anywhere and when I said, ok lets go to the doctor through tears she said "ok" and I knew she was really hurt. My friend offered to watch my little one while I took big sis. I said ”uh, um, huh…I dunno what I want yet” So she kindly said “I’ll be home if you want to drop her off”. It took my oldest 5 min. to do a 1 min. walk to the curb, walking jostles the arm and hurts like heck apparently. So while I buckled in little one and pulled the car around I called our pediatrician who could see us at 10am or earlier if we came in right away. So 2 min. later I was knocking on my friend's door and kissing little one good bye. (Thanks again friend, you were awesome!!!!) Big Sis and I headed off to the doctor. I realized that I didn’t have my checkbook with me, oh well bill me the co-pay please! The doctor saw us as soon as possible. She had on long sleeves yesterday so we had to slowly and painfully pull that up for him to see….I’m still waiting to hear “she is fine, just bruised” but nope it’s a bit swollen and he sends us off for x-rays. It takes us another 10 min. to do a 5 min. walk downstairs….she would cry & yell at me if I walked ahead of her. Ugh, I hate my kids yelling at me but I swallowed it and eventually saw it as pretty darn funny, not her pain but that I couldn’t be 1 step ahead of her! I’m still thinking the x-ray will show nothing is wrong…but nope! It is indeed fractured. So we do the “long” walk back upstairs. We are told we have to drive to the Hospital to pick up copies of the x-rays (they couldn’t make copies downstairs, ugh!) and that we had a 2pm appt. with the Orthopedic Surgeon. During all this I am trying to text/call my mom and husband and a few others and realize that my phone is about to die as well! So we make another trip down the stairs to drive to the hospital. I try and stop and buy a car charger for my phone but I’m in a not so great part of Pomona and of course they don’t have the charger! Using bits of cell phone juice at a time I call my husband to update him and he tells me “your mom is on her way”…way where? I’m in Pomona…ok little more juice to call her and say come to the hospital. My assumption is that getting the copy of the x-rays will take hours! I get to the hospital, fight for a parking spot, and put my daughter in the stroller to save both of us the pain of her walking any more! I tell the receptionist what I need and before I can sit down they have them for me!!!!! WOW! Uh oh…MOM, last, last drop of juice…don’t come….um, um, um…meet me at home!

Its 11am people!!!!!!!

I pick up little one on the way and mom meets us at the front door and starts cracking up when she sees my baby girl in her pajamas, sweat pants and hair….and I can’t help it, I start laughing too…and explain that I haven’t had a shower and that I am still wearing my pajama shirt! Grandma & granddaughter settle on the couch and little one and I head upstairs for a quick shower and change. At 1pm we head off to the Ortho guy. Again we are prepared for a long wait and again it all goes fairly quickly…by 3pm my girl has a pink cast and I am $226 poorer! She’ll have this cast for 3 weeks and then go back in and get a new one, this allows the swelling to go down and for a scrubbing of the arm between casts. She wants the next one to be purple.

Daddy is waiting for us when we get home and he and big sis settle themselves on the couch for cuddles. Around 5-6pm the adrenaline of the day wears off and the pain settles in. The doc recommended Tylenol so we tried that…she spent most of the night groaning in discomfort…and since I slept with her to help with being comfortable or giving meds neither of us got much sleep last night. I decided she would stay home from school today to rest and recoup.

This morning she decided she’d take Ali to school in her pajamas…I made sure I got a shower though! We picked up some Motrin on the way home and that seems to have made a world of difference. We’ve managed a shower for her and she is even trying to attempt homework!

To be honest I am selfishly annoyed that I have to go back to doing everything for her…washing her, buckling her in the car, dressing her, and so on…she’s been able to do most of this for herself for awhile now and I’ve enjoyed it. I know, I know…I said it was selfish!

Her pink cast is pretty cute and she is looking forward to having her friends sign it…but I think mommy gets first dibs!