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Our
Journey:
Journey:
Avalon's Army of Angels
| August 17, 2008 Let's play...oops! |
Apparently Avalon had lots of fun last night. She slept for 14 hours!!! Good thing, she
needed to be rested for the day's activities.
We had a family play date today! A new friend of mine brought her kids over for a
meet-my-kids thing, and dinner. My friend's son is autistic, so she's cautious about whom
she introduces him to. We assured her that our little medical family wouldn't think twice
about his quirks. My girls even offered to twirl and bounce with him, if the mood struck.
Turns out, her son is quite the Nascar fan. His visit was made easy by the Nascar race that
was on TV. He and Nick discussed it, and he kept us all posted on the rankings and pit
events. Later in the evening, we discussed our new friend with the girls, kind of "taking their
temperature" so to speak. Funny enough, it never occurred to the little ones that her son
was any different from other boys. Ambrosia just figured he was a normal boy, and all boys
are sports crazy, case closed.
My friend's daughter actually had the rougher time. Ambrosia and Avalon are militantly
friendly. The two of them aren't very acquainted with the concept of "stranger". They really
are the type of people who see strangers as friends they just haven't met yet. They came
on a bit strong for their new girlfriend. Truth is, they nearly scared her out of her socks.
They never managed to coax her out to the swingset, but the three of them ended up
having a pretty good time up in the toy explosion they call their room.
Once again, I fell woefully short in my clean house ambitions. I got up early and cleaned
like a crazy woman, but as per usual, clutter reigned supreme in a few areas. Most notably,
the upstairs hall and the girls' sanctuary. Let's face it, two little girls, two bezillion stuffies
and dolls...and its just never going to be tidy. Well, at least not in our house.
Over all, our visit was superb. As we normally do, we were just sad it had to end so early.
Our visiting munchkins had a previously arranged outing with their dad - so their time was
spoken for. I'm pretty confident that this was merely the first of scads of visits, so I assured
the kids it wasn't life-alteringly bad.
With all of her rest, and the good food we'd packed into her, Avalon was feeling pretty
frisky. After our company left, she and Ambrosia lobbied to be able to go outside and swing
for a while. We agreed, with the ardent admonition that any twinge of a headache would
bring her straight inside, no questions asked. The hat went on, and they went out.
We could see them giggling and twirling on the swings, heartwarming images to a mom
whose spent too much time watching them play in a hospital bed this summer. Soon
enough, we were busy watching the Olympics and decompressing, quietly celebrating an
evening with no housework necessary. Then it happened...the door came flying open - and
Avalon ran in...
This time, her frenzied shrieks weren't for her, they were for Ambrosia. "Mom mom mom!!!
Ambrosia fell off the swingset - she hurt her arm! Moooooommm!!!!" Before I could run
outside, Ambrosia herself appeared, holding her arm and sobbing. Now frankly, most
parents would have probably loaded her up for urgent care right then and there. But
cripes, it takes a lot more than a header off the trapeze bar to rattle my cage these days! I
mean good grief. We've dealt with cancer, blood infections, open wounds and necrotic
tissue, brain, bone and nerve damage, operations and implanted devices. A limp wrist just
seemed a bit anti-climactic.
Don't get me wrong, we were VERY sympathetic. It was obvious the fall hurt like the
Dickens. We immediately iced and elevated Ambrosia's arm, and got her Tylenol. We
checked for bumps, discoloration, movement, and swelling. We did all we could, we just
didn't run for the medical border.
As the evening progressed, Ambrosia calmed down and began to refuse the ice. Her wrist
swelled a little, but nothing impressive. Eventually, Nick took Anam to bed, and the girls and
I stayed downstairs to drink in some more Olympic moments.
It wasn't until the girls and I headed up to bed that I realized we really probably did have a
problem. Ambrosia wouldn't walk with her arm down. She insisted on carrying it with the
other hand. Great. Now I'd gone a made a little kid with a more-than-likely broken arm
suffer for a night. Crud. My Mom Bank just lost a few thousand points...
When I went to bed, I told Nick I thought we'd best take her in for x-rays. The crazy man
asked if I was going to take her right then. Where's he been the last 4 years?! After 10 pm
is the worst time to head to the ED. (Emergency Dept) No no no...I'd already karmicly
challenged myself, I might as well go for the copper (gold doesn't seem to apply here) and
wait until slow time in the ED tomorrow - say 11 am or so. By then we'll have less of a crowd
to fight, and we'll get in and out in a decent time frame. Tad bit sad I know that, but handy
under these circumstances.
I suppose only time and technology will tell... I'll keep you posted!
needed to be rested for the day's activities.
We had a family play date today! A new friend of mine brought her kids over for a
meet-my-kids thing, and dinner. My friend's son is autistic, so she's cautious about whom
she introduces him to. We assured her that our little medical family wouldn't think twice
about his quirks. My girls even offered to twirl and bounce with him, if the mood struck.
Turns out, her son is quite the Nascar fan. His visit was made easy by the Nascar race that
was on TV. He and Nick discussed it, and he kept us all posted on the rankings and pit
events. Later in the evening, we discussed our new friend with the girls, kind of "taking their
temperature" so to speak. Funny enough, it never occurred to the little ones that her son
was any different from other boys. Ambrosia just figured he was a normal boy, and all boys
are sports crazy, case closed.
My friend's daughter actually had the rougher time. Ambrosia and Avalon are militantly
friendly. The two of them aren't very acquainted with the concept of "stranger". They really
are the type of people who see strangers as friends they just haven't met yet. They came
on a bit strong for their new girlfriend. Truth is, they nearly scared her out of her socks.
They never managed to coax her out to the swingset, but the three of them ended up
having a pretty good time up in the toy explosion they call their room.
Once again, I fell woefully short in my clean house ambitions. I got up early and cleaned
like a crazy woman, but as per usual, clutter reigned supreme in a few areas. Most notably,
the upstairs hall and the girls' sanctuary. Let's face it, two little girls, two bezillion stuffies
and dolls...and its just never going to be tidy. Well, at least not in our house.
Over all, our visit was superb. As we normally do, we were just sad it had to end so early.
Our visiting munchkins had a previously arranged outing with their dad - so their time was
spoken for. I'm pretty confident that this was merely the first of scads of visits, so I assured
the kids it wasn't life-alteringly bad.
With all of her rest, and the good food we'd packed into her, Avalon was feeling pretty
frisky. After our company left, she and Ambrosia lobbied to be able to go outside and swing
for a while. We agreed, with the ardent admonition that any twinge of a headache would
bring her straight inside, no questions asked. The hat went on, and they went out.
We could see them giggling and twirling on the swings, heartwarming images to a mom
whose spent too much time watching them play in a hospital bed this summer. Soon
enough, we were busy watching the Olympics and decompressing, quietly celebrating an
evening with no housework necessary. Then it happened...the door came flying open - and
Avalon ran in...
This time, her frenzied shrieks weren't for her, they were for Ambrosia. "Mom mom mom!!!
Ambrosia fell off the swingset - she hurt her arm! Moooooommm!!!!" Before I could run
outside, Ambrosia herself appeared, holding her arm and sobbing. Now frankly, most
parents would have probably loaded her up for urgent care right then and there. But
cripes, it takes a lot more than a header off the trapeze bar to rattle my cage these days! I
mean good grief. We've dealt with cancer, blood infections, open wounds and necrotic
tissue, brain, bone and nerve damage, operations and implanted devices. A limp wrist just
seemed a bit anti-climactic.
Don't get me wrong, we were VERY sympathetic. It was obvious the fall hurt like the
Dickens. We immediately iced and elevated Ambrosia's arm, and got her Tylenol. We
checked for bumps, discoloration, movement, and swelling. We did all we could, we just
didn't run for the medical border.
As the evening progressed, Ambrosia calmed down and began to refuse the ice. Her wrist
swelled a little, but nothing impressive. Eventually, Nick took Anam to bed, and the girls and
I stayed downstairs to drink in some more Olympic moments.
It wasn't until the girls and I headed up to bed that I realized we really probably did have a
problem. Ambrosia wouldn't walk with her arm down. She insisted on carrying it with the
other hand. Great. Now I'd gone a made a little kid with a more-than-likely broken arm
suffer for a night. Crud. My Mom Bank just lost a few thousand points...
When I went to bed, I told Nick I thought we'd best take her in for x-rays. The crazy man
asked if I was going to take her right then. Where's he been the last 4 years?! After 10 pm
is the worst time to head to the ED. (Emergency Dept) No no no...I'd already karmicly
challenged myself, I might as well go for the copper (gold doesn't seem to apply here) and
wait until slow time in the ED tomorrow - say 11 am or so. By then we'll have less of a crowd
to fight, and we'll get in and out in a decent time frame. Tad bit sad I know that, but handy
under these circumstances.
I suppose only time and technology will tell... I'll keep you posted!