ER Anyone???

Annie was watching a movie. She was sitting on the bar stool, with her feet on a chair, tipping the chair with her feet. I was upstairs taking care of Cecilia, Charity, and talking on the phone to Michael. I heard her crying and assumed they were fighting over which show to watch. Usually it would be Trinity crying in this instance, so I went downstairs to find that Annie had hurt her arm. She was tipping the chair with her feet. It fell back and knocked her over, which happened to be on the only 3X3 patch of hard wood floor that we have in our house. Right away I can see a bump and a bruise. I called Michael back to say that I thought we would need to have an x-ray. Michael of course said that I was over-reacting and that Annie was just pretending because she wanted a cast like Trinity had. However, Annie was "saying" she was fine because she was scared she was in trouble and hurt. Which she was, on both accounts. She gets in trouble daily for tipping chairs.

Charity had been sick the whole week. We thought is was teething, but the teeth came through and she had a fever and a bad cough all week. If you recall, Charity only has 2 moods. Happy and throwing a fit. This meant she has been throwing a fit for about a week straight. We made her take frequent naps! However, she had just woken up and Michael was in Effingham. She wanted me to hold her, climbed down, cried to be held, climbed down, repeat, repeat, drop to the ground and cry. I thought, "I am NOT taking THAT to the ER. I look at Annie's arm and it was swollen very large. She says she is fine, but was still weepy. I called 6 or 7 people and was unable to get anyone on a saturday afternoon, so I waited. Michael was due to be home in less than 3 hours. I knew from Trinity's experience that they would not give a cast right away, due to swelling. I wrapped a scarf around her as a sling and gave her some pain meds. Finally a friend called back and came over about 30 min before Michael came in.

We went to the ER, which was actually a nice break. Annie sat and colored, Cecilia was good. There were tons of babies 5 months - 2 years. I of course assume all of them have RSV and start to feel bad for Charity, who is at home sick. I also start to worry about Cecilia, who is sitting with me. I later saw the baby sitting next to us in the Xray and his mom had slipped on the ice while holding him, so he was NOT in for RSV at all... it was just my active imagination. Annie was a trooper. she never cried or complained. We were in and out in less than 3 hours. She had a non-displaced break, which they called the orthopedic specialist about. The way the doctor talked it seemed like it was very close to a full break and that I should not be surprised if they want to pin it on Tuesday - although the words that came out of his mouth were "you have this other kind of break and normally they do not require this" in a questioning tone. But call on Monday and tell them you have to be seen on Tuesday to be sure you get an early enough appointment.

It was as I suspected and the doctor's were very concerned about the type of fracture that she has. We had to have a 2nd x-ray, a cast, a 3rd x-ray after the cast, and go back in a week for another x-ray. They said right NOW everything is lined up fine, If it slips then they will have to pin it into place. If they catch it early after a slip, then it is much easier. However there are 3-4 types of fractures that give them trouble and this is one. The fracture looks s-shaped. Anyway they said it could be 6 weeks for this to heal properly. I'm glad it is not swimming season!

They come home and pick out some movies from the basement. The one they watch has a character pretend to have an injury, just so he can get a bandage. At the end of the movie, they figure out that he just wants a bandage and give him one. So... all morning yesterday Trinity was limping and crying. Michael told me that he thought she was really hurt and we should take her seriously. (He clearly does not have a good read on the girls - but Trinity does have a really pathetic sad face) Of course, we went to the Nature center with JR, Emma, and Celeste, where she was able to run, jump, and dance. This morning she had a limp for about 5 min again. That has been the adventure of the week.