Broken

Today
I received
A call
From
The school nurse
Telling me
My son
Was in the health office
Having fallen after recess
(in some fluke of errant shoe strap)
Upon his wrist on the stairs

She'd iced it
And sent him back
To his kindergarten classroom
Twice
(his wise teacher convinced it was a fracture kept sending him right back)
Still
He was in significant pain
So the nurse (finally) thought she'd
Better call me in to see
Said it appeared he was in kind of a lot of pain

Good thing she called me

Turns out
Simple fracture
And
Greenstick fracture
One bone - radius - broken clean through
Other bone - ulna - with that hairline break

I've never been so grateful
In my life entire
For the effect of ibuprofen
On wee ones
It brought such blessed relief to my little guy
Who in the stoic manner small children oft-times have
Informed me that his arm was broken
When I arrived to get him

I told him we were going to the doctor so she could see and then probably also for an x-ray
He said he'd rather just go on home to bed
(letting me know things were rather serious for bedtime is more a war zone)
He also anxiously queried regarding the likelihood of shots
I told him while I didn't know for certain, I was pretty sure shots weren't part of the equation
He accepted this and I assured him we could ask that question first when we reached the doctor's office

'Twas a brutal day outside here in the Midwest, hot and humid, the heat index gave us 105 pushing 190 (that's what it felt like anyway)
I'd brought ice and water in the car from home knowing we'd be needing it especially with all the trekking we'd be doing: school, doctor's office, radiology, doctor's office, pharmacy...

I was right too.

That trip to the doctor's office from the school? Pure hell it was. No air conditioning in my car. Road construction in our path. Every bump in the road brought agonized cries from my son's wee mouth.
I finally thought to sing. Every silly song I could think of came pouring from my voice, soothing to my son they were, and for that boon, I thank Deity. They worked.
It wasn't 'til we'd reached the doctor's office and been there for a bit that the ibuprofen kicked in at last - takes a good half hour for that stuff to work and we were moving pretty fast.



I don't know if I'll finish this
It's been a difficult day

I will say this much more for now:
On Monday, extremely early, we'll be heading to the orthopedist for more evaluation and follow-up.
We'll see what the future holds. Thank you for your patience with me as I work through my day. I had to write, apparently; I couldn't rest otherwise. I hope I'll be able to do so now.