Happy Halloween!

From me and my cuties!

IT'S MY HEAD

Here is what is in my head tonight.

MustbakecookieshopeIhaveenoughplatescupsnapkinspartyfavors
sleepysosleepyneedtocallgirlscoutleadermustfigureoutthegameneed
totakethegirlsbygrandparentsgreatgrandparentsneedtocallmybrother
canigetdinnerdonebeforewehavetoleaveforthemeetingmydeskisadisaster
onlythreemoredisksformylifeneedsomenewmusicforthecarwhenwillIhave
timetoexercisetomorrowtellbelovedabouthishaircutmustgiveunitedway
contributionchecktomorrowgottafinishmynotessleepysosleepygottofindtime
for#1topracticeviolinmusttypeinfoletterforgirl
scoutszzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Step right up and make yer guess!

JUST opened some bills that came in the mail today.

What do YOU think the price tag is for two ER visits (each with x-rays), and a visit to the orthopedic doctor (included x-rays and splint)?

Any guesses.... anyone?

I'd tell you now but I have to change my underwear.

I miss good radio

I am really pining for my favorite radio station that went off the air more than a year ago. YOu can listen to the station on line, but that doesn't help me in the car which is when I most crave good music.

It seems like forever since I was exposed to any really good new music.

The radio stations in T-town just make me want to scream, cry, and tear at my clothing every time I try to listen. The capacity of these local radio stations to be repetitive and incredibly, unbelievabley boring is truly astounding.

I have looked at satellite radio, but I just can't bring myself to pay for it when there are only one or two stations I would be interested in listening to.

I suppose I could make myself some CD's to listen to in the car, but I don't really have the time it will take to accomplish that task.

Recently I have been listening to a book on CD. (My Life by Bill Clinton. Interesting listen. LOOOONNNGG. 21 discs, and apparently this is just part 1. I am on disc 15 right now. It is currently way overdue to the library. But I gotta finish it after going this far.) It has been enjoyable, but sometimes I just need some good tunes while I drive.

Hmmm...this has turned in to a pretty whiny post.

Some things you just don't get over I suppose. One of those things for me apparently is the loss of a really good radio station that I LOVED.

Help me.

It's our One Year Anniversary Sale!

Actually there is no sale, sorry to disappoint.

I just realized that this blog has been up and running for a whole year now.

Surprising.

I really thought that I would have given this up LO-ooong before now.

So what has changed n this here blog over the past year?

Let's see...

• Far less frequent posting
• Wa-hay fewer pictures
• I seem to have abandoned the ever popular Hottie of the Week(ish) entries
• I now have people making comments that are not people I have known most of my life

I think that covers it.

Wonder what changes the next year will bring?

Will I even continue to blog over the next year?

Hard to say. Life seems to get busier by the day. It is much easier and faster to just check other blogs and occasionally make silly comments, and then there is my ever waning confidence in my ability to keep this stuff even the slightest bit interesting.

Well I am not going to answer those questions now and maybe never will answer those questions. I need to go to bed if the construction of the last sentence is any indication. It is late, and my day starts ear-lye in the morning.

Hey Ma! I'm Doin' a show!

Hey all you T-town and general vicinity readers....

Get in touch with me if you want information about the upcoming production I am involved in. I decided that I am not comfortable with putting all the info out in to cyberspace. There is a very important event happening with the production tomorrow so get in touch soon!

Ta!

No surgery (Thanks for the chants Val!)

Well after two and a half hours at the orthopedic office we have...

a new splint
orders not to return to school until Friday. F-R-I-D-A-Y.
another appointment for Friday morning at which time we will apparently do the same thing that we did today.

So there you have it.

Good news..the bones are in the proper place to heal correctly so no setting was required. Getting the new splint was painful though. So if we are indeed doing the same thing Friday that we did today...I am not so much looking forward to it.

I personally am hoping for a cast Friday. I am really just not comfortable sending her back to school in a splint. Just walking to her classroom today to get school work I felt like I needed to be her bodyguard to keep her from being ran into or knocked over. Granted I am a bit hyper-sensitive to potential dangers for her right now.

Oh yeah...by 6:00 chocolate milk spilled on the newly wrapped splint.

Good times....

In Case I Forgot to Mention it...

I completely and totally hate this broken arm thing.

I hate seeing my child in pain.

I hate seeing her scared.

I hate not being able to truly help her feel better.

I hate giving her medicine with codeine in it.

I am beginning to hate re-telling the story to the many well-meaning people who have asked.

I hate that people have felt compelled to ask me if she is going to require surgery. I REALLY hate it that when I say the possibility was not mentioned to us by anyone at the ER the same well meaning people seem to feel it is necessary to offer their lay-person opinion that surgery is likely. I had not considered that thank you very much, and NOW I have one more thing to worry and fret about. Once the idea was presented oh... 5 or 6 times it was hard not to go there. Especially for me. I have discussed the very tentative hold I have on my ability to stay away from the crazy place when things like this happen in some previous post some months ago, so I won't bore you with it again.

This is only day two.

My Worst Fear

Since becoming a parent my worst fears have naturally changed quite a bit. I think every parent has their own particular worst fear about their children.

Mine happens to be getting a call at work from whomever has my child in their care and reporting that they have an injury of the type that requires a visit to the emergency room.

Yesterday afternoon at about 3:00 I am wrapping things up at work and very near to being on my way out the door when my cell phone rings.

I notice that it is the school calling. (Odd thing. I usually keep my phone set to the vibrate mode and keep it in my purse checking it from time to time so as not to have the disturbance during sessions. For some reason this week I have felt compelled to keep it on my person instead, which as it turned out yesterday was a good thing. Mother's intuition? (cue dramatic music) I don't know.....)

So I answer it:

"This is so and so from the school. We need you to come and pick up #2. She fell on the playground and we think she broke her arm."

Despite my shaking and horrific anxiety, I managed to convey that I was on my way, and even proceeded to call beloved and tell him that he needs to get to the school. Of course this was after I snapped at the poor innocent secretary who had the misfortune to answer my call. I told her from the get go this was an emergency. I waited while she paged him and waited...waited some more. She got back on the line and said that she had paged him three times and he was not in the building. I begged to differ with her and said he was at rehearsal and suggested she look for him there. Now I may have been a little shall we say....abrupt with her. I don't do well when my babies are hurt. Niceness goes Fuh-LYING out the window at warp speed.

I managed to get to the school without having an accident or getting a ticket. The drive (all of about 5 minutes give or take) was JUST enough time for me to go through about a bazillion different scenarios of what I would find when I got there. The most vivid being me hearing her screams from the parking lot because she has bone protruding through her skin.

Fortunately it was not that dramatic. What I found was a very sad and scared little girl with her arm in a splint sitting with her big sister. That diffused my anxiety by several levels. (Props to the school for thinking to get big sister right away.)

The nurse explained what happened. #2 had been trying to flips on the bars on the playground. She fell and landed on her hand with her arm fully extended. The first time she came to the nurse she checked her out and there did not seem to be any swelling, disfigurement or dislocation. She gave her some ice and sent her back to class. Not too long after that #2 was back still obviously in a lot of pain and crying so she splinted her up and made the call.

About flips. #2 has been trying to learn to hang from her knees on the acrobar on our swing set at home just like #1 can. After several attempts and at least two incidents of falling on her head I put the Ki-bosh on this skill building activity at home. Much as I wish I could, I can not control what she does on the playground at school, and unfortunately my predictions of dire and doom from continuing that activity came true. I like being right, but not about this stuff.

So we wait for Beloved/Daddy to get there and off we go to the emergency room.

Apparently when you come in with a small child who is crying and is wearing a sling you get speedy treatment. I have never been processed through an emergency department so quickly.

They gently examined her arm, gave her some Tylenol with codeine and an ice bag and we were off for x-rays. Fortunately Aunt J was working and came down to do the x-rays, which helped certain little people (and big) feel a lot better.

Shortly after that the doctor comes back with the bad news. We do indeed have a broken arm. Fractured right below the elbow.

One splint, prescription for Tylenol with Codiene, and an appointment with an orthopedic doctor for Monday...we're on our way home.

About an hour and a half later the fussing, crying begins. Unfortunately we are an hour away from another dose of pain medication.

Time for more pain medication and bed. We are fairly confident that soon our injured little angel will be out like a light.

Little more than an hour later we are stil waiting for that pain medication to kick in. We have more crying and complaints of pain. So Beloved poses the question to #2. Do you want to continue to try and go to sleep, or do you want to go back to the Hospital? #2's answer without hesitation take me back to the hospital.

I get the hospital people on the phone, explain what is going on and they tell me to bring her back in. So off we go. Of course once we get in the car she is down right chipper and chatty and I am thinking that this is about to be a wasted trip. It turned out it was probably a good thing we went ahead and went back.

Another examination shows a wrist that is swollen. We did not x-ray the wrist first time around, so more x-rays. No broken wrist. The first splint was kinda funky and had her hand at a strange angle and her fingers all squished. We decide to do a different kind of splint. We put this splint on and #2 seems more comfortable than she has since it all began. The doctor showed us in detail the x-rays from earlier and #2 did a pretty good number on her arm. Looks to be fractured in about three different spots right below the elbow. We are sent back home. More pain medication is given we are tucked in to bed and go right to sleep.

The rest of the night wasn't too bad, we did have one wake up when the pain meds wore off. The next dose seemed to last much longer, and she is still uncomfortable today which is to be expected, but NOTHING like last evening.

Today we are having a movie marathon so that we can keep the arm elevated and iced. I expect a repeat of these activities tomorrow. Keeping the arm propped is a bit of a trikc

#2 wants to go to school Monday morning, but I am more inclined to keep her home. Our appointment isn't until the afternoon and I will feel much better turning her loose among the kindergarten masses once we have a full report from the specialist and a full cast on the arm.

Ok, I gotta go. Keeping this kid's arm propped up is not as easy as I thought. She is slippery I guess. I have to help her sit up and readjust about every half hour or so it seems.

Hope all of you have a better weekend!