For those who don't know, my daughter is in circus school. Sort of like Cirque du Soleil type of stuff. Silks, trapeze, trampoline, and all around circus fun. She loves it. I love that she loves it. Except I always worry a little that things could go wrong...well, dun-dun-dun...once again my anxieties were right.
Yep, broken arm!!
I never really thought I'd utter the words, "My daughter broke her arm falling off stilts". Try explaining that to the nurse with a straight face.
It happened towards the end of class. Hubby was there when it happened and sent a text telling me she hurt her arm and the instructor said we should take her right to the ER and, of course, I just assumed it was what they have to say to cover their butts. She came in the house, crying a bit, complaining that it hurt. They had given her an ice pack so I took that off and sure it was swollen, and a little "S" shaped but it didn't look crazy. I gave her a tylenol and tried to use my handy first aid skills to make a sling, but couldn't find anything to use so we settled on taping the ice pack to her arm with electrical tape. (Don't judge)
The whole dang family piled in the car for our fun trip to the ER.
We get to the ER and the triage nurse immediately whisks us to the back and says "Wait here for an x-ray". Well, hot damn...this is going to be a breeze!! I figure an hour, max, and we are outta here!
Uh, yeah, not so much. An hour passed without seeing anyone. A nurse comes over, takes a look and says it doesn't seem too bad, she's sure she's fine, and a doctor will be by soon. I ask for a cup so I can grab Grace some water. She tells me to give her a second and she'll grab one. I wait...and wait some more. Another hour goes by, and I ask again. By this point I'm cranky, Grace is cranky, Todd and Jeremy are still in the waiting area wondering whats going on. Grace is in and out of sleep...turns out Tylenol still works wonders for knocking her out. And I still never got the cup...
We are in hour 3-4 and I'm worked up! Why the eff did they bring us back here if we weren't going to see anyone? I would rather sit out with my family then linger in a hallway. Grace was shivering so I grabbed her some johnny shirts to use as blankets. I would have given her my jacket had I planned better and had a shirt on underneath it (oops).
Meanwhile, across the hall, there's a 72 year old, smoker, with chest congestion (NOT pain). They have him hooked up to a mask (asthma, not oxygen). He's carrying on and flirting with the nurses. When they leave he calls up friends on his cell phone and chit chats until the nurse returns to check on him. He's laughing, he's wandering the halls between masks, he's got all kinds of energy to annoy me. He's fine.
Hour 4 comes, and the x-ray man comes down the hallway. Yippeeee! It's finally time. Oh wait...where's he going?? Why is he going in the old man's room first???? WHAT?!?!?!? MELTDOWN!!!!!!!!!!!
I am very much a well-mannered person at the hospital. I will wait my turn with patience and understanding that the health system is overwhelmed (to all those who rush to the ER for the flu or sniffles...F.U.). I am calm, and quiet, and I take it as it comes. But that night, of all nights...I was overwhelmed with life, stressed about work, tired, hungry, annoyed....so I, shall we say, lost my poop.
I calmly asked the nurse if she could come speak to me when she was done with old man. She came over, and I proceeded to bawl my face off like a hormonal psycho. Between apologies, I explained my point of view and cried some more. Within a minute, not only did I have the attention of one nurse....but now I had three!! Lovely. In the middle of the hallway, with all the crack heads and mental patients, I am SOBBING like a lunatic, surrounded by nurses trying to calm me down. Thankfully, Grace was still passed out from her tylenol. I literally could not make myself stop. They promised me that we were next to see the doctor.
I did not have high expectations that they were telling the truth. Just calm the crazy lady down! Tell her whatever she needs to hear to shut her up! Turns out, we were next in line. LOL. If I could have controlled myself for another five minutes I would have saved myself a lot of embarrassment! Though...maybe my meltdown sped up the process??
Within 30 minutes, we saw the doctor, got the x-ray, confirmed the arm was broken (in two places!), and she had the cast on. Almost five hours of waiting...
Not bad for free health care I suppose. (Count my blessings, count my blessings, count my blessings)
Needless to say, we now have to deal with a cast for 6-8 weeks. Circus has been cancelled until the next term (she will go back, despite MY anxiety).
And there may be a few extra quiet nights until the pain stops or she becomes resistant to pain pills....
