Climbing with Sweaty Hands

 

Lady Hiva and I had just sat down for lunch at work and I had a call from the school. (Luckily I had my phone with me). It was an odd conversation, I could tell that the school staff was trying to be measured and precise in their conversation. 

They started off by telling me that Koala Bear loves to climb. We already know this...she climbs everything. She cannot just talk to us in the kitchen, she climbs the door frame and talks to us from the ceiling! haha. She constantly has blisters and bruises from climbing poles, trees, and anything else that looks like a good challenge. Finally after several sentences of diplomatic platitudes, they told me that she had been climbing a pole and fell. They were worried she had broken her arm.

I rushed to the school--when I say, rushed, I mean I left right away, but with traffic I did not make it there very quickly. When I arrived I met a tearful little girl in the nurses unit. I knew it must be bad if she is crying. Normally she is our tough athletic child. We are constantly asking her where she got new bruises and she just shrugs and says she does not know. When she was telling me what happened she said she was mad because she ..."had done it before, but her hands were sweaty and she slipped!" Of course you cannot go to the slide up the ladder like the other kids, you have to climb a pole and shimmy across a brace pole to get to the slide! HAHA

We made the trek to the hospital that has a pediatrics unit. It was quite an experience to see the amount of paperwork that they fill out. Each person we talked to had to write, sign, and stamp something. I am sure I spent more time walking from one stamping person to the next than I did with actual doctors! Each person has a set job--they do not do someone else's stamping--gasp! The horror of thinking they could stamp for two things!! HAHA

Sadly, after X-rays we found out that she had broken her radius. And the bone had shifted back behind itself. So it required surgery. We filled out A LOT more papers and waited to let us go home. They needed her to come back in the morning for surgery. I was so sad to watch them take blood. She was so brave as they had to poke her several times. It is times like this that I admire her mental toughness. 

Because it happened at the school, they made us go to the police station to report it. It was another stop with more paper and more stamps. At this point my little girl was running out of energy. I finally told the police station that I needed to leave. I am still unsure why we had to get it...but whatever...do your stamps so we can go!

We were back at the hospital early in the morning. We (by we, I mean me) had to "cause a fuss" because they told us to have her at the hospital at 0830h having fasted, but upon check in they told us the surgery was not until 1700h! I was not happy they were just going to have a little girl fast for nearly 24 hours because they did not have their act together. With all those papers we filled out and stamped yesterday, they still acted surprised that we were there! HAHA

I told her I would take her anywhere to eat after the hospital. So I got to have a daddy daughter date with her at Blue Bop restaurant per her request. 

She thought it was so funny she had to have a seat belt for the wheelchair

This guy was such a supportive brother. He stayed all day at the hospital with her. He too had to fast because "it is not allowed" to bring in the snacks we had packed. He read and played on his iPad. I think having him there also let Koala Bear feel less stressed. 

It is hard to watch children go through hard things...but I am grateful for access to medical care and for the many people who helped us along the way.