Goodness. 3 ER visits in a 30 day time period. Thank goodness it was different kids! Twice in May Kailey and then Corra. Then… this month Allysa, I keep telling Bryce this doesn’t mean his turn is next. Here’s the story: We go down to the bus stop to pick up Corra and Bryce, come home and Bryce looses his lego guy helmet under the middle row of seats, which you know is life or death that helmet needs to be found asap! So while I had my head under the middle row of seats Corra and Allysa where playing on the swing-set while Bryce was asking me “did you find it yet?”. I heard Corra say to Allysa “are you alright? (Later Corra told me she saw Allysa’s wrist bent the wrong way) Allysa responded with “no my arm hurts!” so I un-wedged my arm from under the seats and went to go look. Allysa’s left arm had a definite dip about 1″ from her wrist. I said “aw, crap. I think you broke your arm. Lets get in the house, get some ice and then go to the ER. Crap, crap, crap.” Couldn’t find the medical frozen ice packs, and didn’t want to waste 10 minutes looking for them since they where probably in the bottom back of the freezer. I had Corra get two big bags of frozen veggies from our freezer on the back porch and had Allysa put her broken arm on top of one bag and the other bag on top of her arm, we didn’t have any newspaper so I couldn’t make a sling, but thankfully the frozen veggies made it hard for her to move her arm. Grabbed the go-to bag (has toys the kids hardly ever get to see, perfect for ER trips and long car trips) and we where off to the ER. On the drive over there I thought, crap. How am I going to park (which there is never any parking close to the hospital unless its 2am) bring her and the other kids into the ER? So I parked in the fire lane and locked them in, went over to reception (right next to the triage nurse) and asked for help. The nice lady with her door open sent out the security guard, the triage nurse and another nurse. After a couple x-rays (which they gave us paper copies to take home with us!)
they put her arm in a temporary cast/splint gave us a sling, and sent us home with a script for a pain killer. We where in and out in 1 hour and 45 minutes tops. Amazing. We went over to the Orthopedic Dr the next day, and he set her arm in a lovely, shiny, white cast. She didn’t get to pick a color one since the Dr had to grab the supplies he needed since we where not in a casting room. (I blame the guy in the waiting area that called out when our name was called. He was there first. Thanks buddy, yeah you might have been getting your cast off, but um, she doesn’t even have a cast.) I’m pretty sure the ER gave us the wrong size sling, we went back to the Dr and got a smaller one (a pediatric small this time) which I used to make her a pretty sling.
basically I measured the pediatric sling (for reference, Allysa is 5 years old, and wears a childs size 6), it was 11″ long and 6″ tall. I cut out two pieces of fabric and added a 2″ gusset for the elbow, thinking that maybe that would hold her arm better. I used 3 D rings and placed one just after her arm to hold it back (you can see in the pic) and two others over by the end for the strap to come through so its adjustable.
Making this helped me feel better, I felt so bad that she broke her arm (ok, a little mad too) but I also felt helpless. I can’t do anything to make her feel better or make her more comfortable. She loves the pretty sling as she calls it, and she really enjoyed picking out the fabric for it. We go back to the Ortho Dr. tomorrow, and hopefully will find out how much longer she needs to have this cast on. (Which BTW did you guys know there is a waterproof cast?? I found out about it 2 days after she got this one. *grumble*) For now though,
I’m going to “get excited and make things”! I hope to sew a little bit more, I need to get started on teacher gifts since the kids have 2 weeks of school left! Maybe make another sling for Allysa and use some of that antique lace in my stash. I started another sweater, and finished two others that I need to get photographed. Right now though, I think a nap sounds awful nice…
PS I took my GS troop horseback riding this weekend. I think they had fun.
PPS I got to ride too 😀
Mistress Stash Enhancer 