Lightening Online

We got the dreaded phone call from the school yesterday.

There was an accident on the playground.  They think Trailer Boy has broken his arm.

Ooookkaaaayyyyy.

We’re only an hour and a half away doing some jobs in a regional centre when the phone call comes through on Farmboys mobile.

There’s nothing like the feeling of helplessness when one of your “babies” needs you and you can’t get to them.

Thankfully, Granny (Farmboy’s mum) to the rescue.

We managed to get hold of her and she went to the hospital (one of the front office staff took him to the hospital).

I nearly fell apart when I talked to the little tike on the phone.  Poor kid was being really brave but he really wanted his mum.

We hightailed it back toward our home town, getting progress reports along the way.

Definitely broken.  Have to go to another regional town (an hour and a half from where we live in the OPPOSITE direction to where we were) to see an Orthopaedic Surgeon.

We picked him up from the hospital.  Quick catch up with the nurses (doctor who saw him in town is long gone back to the surgery).  Sign some paperwork.  Find out what has happened so far.  Pick up the x-ray and a letter for the surgeon.  Swap vehicles (thankfully, our other car was in town).  Make arrangements for the older 2 kids.  Head off toward the hospital where the Orthopaedic Surgeon would see him.  Make phone calls along the way to let others know what is going on and make arrangements for the things Farmboy was supposed to do at Footy training ready for Saturday (he’s a team manager).

The poor kid was in a lot of pain, in spite of the pain relief he’d already been given.  I kept trying to distract him in the car.  Was so glad Farmboy was with me to drive while I focused on him.  Eventually he fell asleep and stayed that way until we got to the hospital.

By this time, I am exhausted and brain dead.  Admissions are asking me questions and I’m hard pressed to come up with the answers.

Nurses start rushing around.  Theatre is waiting for him so they want to get all the paperwork done as soon as possible.  They were so good with him.

Poor kid is freaking out.  He doesn’t understand what’s going on.  Doesn’t understand what’s going to happen.

By the time he goes into theatre, we’ve seen at least 4 different nurses, 2 students and 2 doctors (the surgeon and the anaesthetist).

He tries so hard to be brave but it’s all a little bit freaky for a 6 year old, no matter how wonderful the staff are.

Mum gowns up and it takes his mind off it all while he laughs at how funny I look in the all the theatre garb.

The surgeon and nurse start teasing him about putting a pink cast on his arm.

He chooses black.

I thought he’d choose blue but no, he went for black this time.

Into theatre.  Before he knows it there’s a needle in his arm.  He starts to cry and I talk to him, trying to distract him from what they are doing to his arm.  Distract him from the blood pouring out the needle site.

In what seems like seconds, he’s dropped off.  I was shocked at how quickly it all happened.

Back to the waiting area where Farmboy is waiting.

We can see the theatre from where we wait.  He’s out again pretty quickly.  They only needed to reset the bone before putting it into plaster.

He goes into recovery and we wait.  And wait.

40 minutes later they come out.  He’s awake.  We go in.

By this time of night, theatre is closing up for the day.  Just 2 little boys in recovery but the other boy heads up to the children’s ward not long after we enter.

We talk to him.  He’s amazed that it didn’t hurt.  He’s still sleepy but quite chirpy all the same.  He likes that his arm isn’t hurting now.  The nurses give him a balloon.  Tie it to his bed.  He doesn’t like the monitor attached to his finger, keeping check on his pulse and oxygen saturation levels.

Staff call the children’s ward to say he’s ready to come up.  They don’t know anything about him coming.  Thankfully there is one bed left.  They’re busy though so the theatre staff take him upstairs.

He’s hungry and thirsty.  I’m guessing that’s a pretty good sign.

Only problem is, there’s no food.  Apparently because they didn’t know he was coming, they don’t have anything for him.

At least that’s what the first nurse told me.

Fortunately, another nurse seems more on the ball and comes up with jelly and juice for him.

I grab some chips from the vending machine.  Some for him and some for us.  We haven’t eaten in over 6 hours ourselves.

Thankfully no nausea.  The nurses don’t want him getting sick on the way home but it’s all good.

Two hours of observation and we can go.

Almost 9pm but we decide to make the drive home anyway.

Quick stop at the chemist (just made it before 9pm closing time) then the supermarket to try and find something that will actually write on black plaster (found some metallic textas that work quite well).  Final stop is MacDonald’s drive through to get some food.

Back to town.  Pick up older 2 kids.

Get home close to midnight.

A rather more eventful day than we were expecting!!!! 

Everyone had a quiet home day today to recover.  The older 2 are fighting sore throats/runny noses so I figured a day off wouldn’t hurt.  And would help distract Trailer Boy.

Mostly he seems alright but there’s still a little bit of pain.  Apparently that’s to be expected for the first couple of days.

Looks like he’ll have an interesting morning talk come Monday when he goes back to school.

Those  jolly monkey bars have claimed another victim!