When you have children who are active and playful, it’s kind of a given that every so often, one of them is going to break a limb. Last Friday it was Ruben’s turn. Mid afternoon I got a call from Maryvale. It was the school nurse, who by this time, with all the kids I have had traipsing through her office for the last six years, simply greets me with a cheerful “Hey, Bestiiiie!”
Apart from her greeting, though, it wasn’t a cheerful conversation. Urgency was warranted, on account of Ruben having jumped off the swings and hurt his wrist badly. She could tell just by looking at it that it was broken (ugh), and she’d managed to get it into a splint; but he needed to get to the emergency room ASAP.
I right away hung up and called Paul, who had gone out on a walk a while earlier. I hoped he wasn’t too far into it and could make it back to the school quickly – however, he was already a mile and a half away from where he’d parked the truck. He turned around immediately and ran all the way back to the parking lot – pretty impressive for a 57yo guy! Anyway, with a slight delay he made it over there and picked up Ruben to bring him to the pediatric ER.
It didn’t take long for them to ascertain it was indeed broken. He was back in a room shortly, where they gave him nasal pain meds, which basically were just to try to calm him down enough to get an IV in for the stronger medication. It didn’t help much – apparently it took five staff to get the IV in place! Poor little guy…
After they got the bones aligned properly, they were able to get him wrapped up with another splint. Then it was just a matter of waiting for him to wake up.
Finally he was able to sit up and they put a sling around the arm and sent him on his way with instructions about keeping it dry, and keeping him from running around too much. He was already feeling better by the time he and dad reached Burger King, where we met up with them for a late supper and he was finally able to eat something.
In a few days he will go to the orthopedic doc and they will put a cast on. The cast has to wait until the arm is no longer swelling so it wont cut off circulation. In the meantime, he is bored. He can’t goof around, he can’t play at recess, he can’t even play his favorite computer game because it requires two hands on the keyboard and mouse! He’s squirrelly with no outlet for his energy. I am sure it will be a little better after they put the cast on, but yikes. It’s gonna be a long haul!
We are super grateful for the caring and professional staff at Maryvale who looked after him so well, and of course the wonderful doctors and nurses at Thunderbird Pediatric ER. God is good and shows his love even in the midst of such trials!
