friday the 13th

(a post about our visit to the aquarium really will be coming....i got pissed off & quit last time i tried b/c blogger gave up on me & my attempt to post a billion pics!)

ok, so friday the 13th. i typically don't believe the hoopla about the day. afterall, my birthday is on the 13th & has fallen on friday more than once. it's never been an issue for me. this past friday the 13th is another story!!!

it started off just fine. i worked all day, & matt got the kids out of the house for me. they went & bought a lovely new 46" flatscreen lcd tv for us, grabbed some lunch, & who knows what else fun daddy & kid stuff. they love that kind of day.

we decided that we needed a new tv stand for our new tv, so we headed up to unclaimed freight. i'm not made of money, so we needed to find something that was nice but also cost effective (aka, cheap!).

we walked around for awhile, chose our new piece of furniture, & were waiting for our invoice so we could pay at the registers. mattie & i each grabbed one of beast's hands & picked him up to entertain him. mattie felt a pop, we put beast down, & 2.2 seconds later he was crying. i mean really crying. he was clearly in pain....lots of pain.

we quickly went & paid and headed for the car. beast was still crying & would not move his left arm at all. it was hard to even buckle him in his carseat. we drove the 5 minutes back to our house & came inside. i got beast to sleep while laying on my chest. we figured while he was sleeping we could check out his arm. no such luck. every time we touched his left arm (any part of it), he wimpered in his sleep. something was definitely wrong.

mattie called the nurses at the hospital to see what they thought. they told us to sling it up & drive on down. since we live in the middle of nowhere the closest hospital is a solid 20 minutes away. damn. mattie called unclaimed freight & asked them to deliver the new tv stand the next morning so we could head out.

we dropped rae off with some friends. (thanks cara, we owe you big!) beast didn't sleep on the way down. he just kind of sat there, not moving his arm as it rested in our homemade sling (one of mattie's shirts!)

we walked into the ER thinking we were in luck. no one was in the waiting room. turns out they were ALL in the ER rooms. we checked in & waited. after maybe an hour we were taken to a room. 10 minutes later we were kicked out of that room. a bigger, better emergency had shown up. we went back to the lobby & waited for another hour. what fun. beast & i took a walk. he was feeling better but still not moving that left arm.

we finally got another room in the ER. we watched tv & tried our best to entertain a very hungry, very sleepy beast. we started hanging out in the doorway just to make sure they knew we were still there. an hour later, a nurse popped in to check on beast. she said the doc would be in shortly & we would probably be heading for some x-rays. ok. i expected that much.

a few minutes later a very nice doc showed up. he talked to us a bit & checked out both of beast's arms. he felt all of the bad arm first. then he felt the good arm. he went back to the bad arm. while he was talking to us he twisted beast's arm. beastie boy looked like he was going to cry for about 3 seconds, then he just stared at the doc. the doctor declared that beast was fixed. no x-rays needed. he told us beast might not use that arm for about 24 hours, but 2 minutes later he was. if was as if nothing ever happened.

we got some papers from the nurse with instructions & headed for the door.......4 and 1/2 hours later. damn.

beast had what's called nursemaid's elbow. it's very common. unfortunately, beastie boy may now be more prone to having this happen until about the age of 5, so we have to be extra careful. but we are thankful it was nothing more serious. our first trip to the ER is now under our belts......

hopefully it's the last for a very, very long time.