ouch, ouch, owwie

Saturday (21 August 2010) turned out to be an eventful day! But not in a good way. We started the morning off with 'normal' Saturday morning cartoons (since that is the only day of the week the kids are allowed to watch cartoons!) and breakfast. After breakfast T left to go and study at school for the morning while I got the kids ready to attend open gym at the Red River Gymnastics Center. [They had an open morning in which admission was free opposed to $4 a child, so I thought it would be a good opportunity to check it out!] We got there a little before 10 am and things seemed to look alright. Then everyone in Grand Forks that had a toddler and/or pre-schooler came. PHEW! There was probably close to 75 people there, including kids and parents. It was a little overwhelming even for me! I was ready to leave after about 15-20 minutes but the kids were having so much fun I did not have the heart to make them leave yet. As we were playing by this 'pool' of foam cubes J got hurt. Of course I was helping her jump into this 'pool' so I felt terrible that she got hurt. I asked if she wanted to leave and she whimpered a sad little 'yes'. So we got ready to leave and while she was trying to put her shoes on she broke down in tears, sobbing that her neck hurt. We managed to get composed and made it to the van. After getting everyone buckled I called T at school and said I think she may have fractured her clavicle, I should probably take her to Urgent Care. He met us at home and took the two little kids inside. J was in so much pain she could not move her arm to get out of her car seat. So we were off...
URGENT CARE, not so urgent. We checked in then waited about 30-35 minutes before we were registered. I swear if those people took their thumbs out of their butts they could help patients a lot more efficiently! I told the woman why we were there while she preceded to take vitals and such. Then she had the nerve to tell me that J was probably over exaggerating, after all she is a kid. It took all I had not to flip out but I just said I would feel better if she saw a doctor and had x-rays to make sure it was not a fracture. Of course then J had to go potty and I asked if I could take her. She said that was fine and we were off. When we came back she was checking in another patient (which was fine) but when she was finished she ignored us. Another woman came over and asked if we had completed our registration and I said I did not think so but was not sure. She brought us back and finished all the paperwork and got J a bracelet. Then we got to go and wait some more till a room was open in Urgent Care.
The nurse finally calls us back, about another 20 minutes or so, and we follow her to the room. Which there are 5 rooms and only 1 was occupied. After getting in there the nurse was taking information down,while chewing her gum like a COW {side note: one of my HUGE pet peeves}, then left. To my surprise the Doctor was in our room within 3-4 minutes, WOW! He did an exam with her, felt her clavicle and said he thought everything felt normal. Since she was so resistant to movement and was crying when he was touching it though he thought it would be a good idea to take some x-rays. And... Dare I say it, "MOMMY WAS RIGHT!" She did have a fracture! I am not happy that she had a fracture but it does make me feel good that I was right. She had an unusual fracture in that the bone ends were pressing against each other so they buckled up instead of one going over the other. This was 'good' news because if they would have been going over one another she would have needed a 'figure 8' cast on her upper body but since they were buckled she only has to be in a sling for 10 days or so until her follow up with her pediatrician.
I am so glad that I took her in right away! My baby girl is already starting to heal. We can see the bump starting to form over her fracture already. The Dr. said it may get the size of a golf ball but should be reabsorbed over time. Now we just have to wait for her check-up on the 31st of August.