Saturday, October 6, 2007

it has happened...




I suppose it has been only a matter of time since Grace was born that we would spend the majority of a Friday night in the Children's E.R. This is Grace's spin on the incident:
"Well, Sam and I were running fast and playing hide and seek. Then we bonked. Then we fell down real hard and had an accident. But it was only an accident."

And that folks, is about what happened. We were enjoying a beautiful Friday afternoon at the park with several friends, and about 10 minutes before I had thought we'd leave there was a big crash of Sam (nice boy from Kindergarten) and Grace on the cement floor of one of the picnic pavilions. There was serious crying. Crying that wouldn't even be tempered by a lollipop (right then I knew it was bad). We (that would be Jimmy and I) managed to get her to the car and as she put her hand on the seat and slightly bent her elbow, Grace just screamed.

We got home and found Nate (who minutes before discovered a few messages on his cell phone and the house phone from his wife who somehow stayed pretty cool and collected) all ready for a physical exam of the arm in question. After hearing the dreaded words, "Daddy, I can't move my arm," we called around and found a last minute sitter for Jimmy and made our way to the ER.

The results (this took many hours and several x-rays to determine - one x-ray was even taken of her beloved bunny, Aurora (who, incidentally has no bones to be broken)) are this: "Supracondylar Fracture of the Humerus, Closed." That is a fancy way of saying she broke her arm (or her elbow if you'd like to be technical about it).

So what does Grace think of all this you may ask? Well, she is pretty darn brave and very tough. They gave her some pain meds shortly upon arrival and we gave her some Tylenol when we got home; and that's it. She hasn't taken anymore, she hasn't complained of any pain, and she refuses to take anything (even though we have some that is pink AND bubblegum flavor). She proudly told every doctor and nurse her story and casually mentioned to some that indeed she is not only the quickest girl in her class, she is actually faster than all the boys too.

We will follow up this week with the orthopedic surgeon (who happens to be Jimmy's ortho as well) and will know more about the course we'll need to take. Right now it looks good (that is my way of saying - probably no OR time and in the end it'll heal right up).

I'm sure by now you've seen the picture of Grace the Brave proudly sporting her cast inside her "Arm Purse", wearing her gown from the hospital (when presented with the idea of wearing a gown she said, "Gown?! I love gowns!"), and the tiny band-aid covering her scraped knee. And you can see one of her (many, many, many) x-rays. I've taken the liberty of circling the fracture.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Grace is indeed very brave and we look forward to hearing more about the arm purse (ha ha!). We're proud that our neighbor is the fastest person in her school! That has to qualify for a Guinness Record right?

Lindsay said...

What a rough night you guys all had! I'm proud of Grace for being so tough! If you'd like to pass on this info: her Aunt Lindsay ALSO broke her left elbow when I was little! It happened when I was dropped on the church gym floor by my favorite babysitter Dwayne (he was doing a very bouncy version of horsey on his knee and I went flying to the floor). But I found that my "arm purse" came in VERY handy for carrying things--it's like an extra large pocket for all sorts of fun collections. We hope she heals fast and is back racing all the boys soon! Love, Linds

AnnBrown said...

Grace,
We are so proud of you! We were quite impressed by your bravery, and how you didn't even complain when you showed us your arm yesterday. You are the biggest, toughest, kindergartener we know! Hang in there kido!
Love, Ann and Ryan

Anonymous said...

To the Gracester:
It just may be a "Page tradition" that the women of the family break an arm (but let's hope NOT! I broke my right (writing) arm in the 5th grade,along with my little toe and a sprained left arm!
Good girl for handling it so well. (Although the chance to wear a "gown" does take the sting out of things...) You will be back on the playground racing the kids again soon, I know!
Take it a bit easy and we will see you soon!
Love, Nana and Poppi