Week Two

Annnnddd THIS is how we're starting week two of school:

I'll give you three guesses as to whose arm this is... (hint, it's not mine!)

Need some help? 

Probably not the one you expected, eh?  Merrill fell this afternoon after school, tripping over the little fence around their climbing tree (after sliding out of the tree and scraping up her other arm).  She landed on her left forearm and cracked it right in the middle.  Not a bad break, but a break.  She has this lovely splint on for now (which she does not like and let the Dr. know just how MUCH she didn't like it and that she wanted it OFF right then at the emergency room -- the Dr. actually commented that he had never seen a child fight a splint like that before because of the pain.  He was both confounded about what to do {we were both afraid she was going to rip it off the minute I let go of her} and impressed by her tolerance for pain). We will call the orthopedic Dr. in the morning to schedule getting the cast on.  They wanted to wait in case there is any swelling that needs to go down.  After a LOT of tears and screaming I was finally able to get Merrill calm enough to leave the hospital felling pretty secure that she wouldn't try to take the splint off.  A purple popsicle from the Dr. helped as well as the promise of a stop to Bread Co. for the dinner she missed.  I don't think it helped things that the after-care hotline advised us not to feed her before taking her to the emergency room (in case she needed a sedative), so she was very tired, hungry, and scared.  I am glad we went to the emergency room and not to urgent care though because everyone there was very patient with her.  She perked up quite a bit with dinner and was able to ask calm questions about the splint and the cast and what was going to happen and now she is sleeping peacefully next to me.  Hoping the pain doesn't wake her in the middle of the night (she had a dose of medicine before we headed to the hospital and once it kicked in she's been managing well). Wish us luck that getting the cast on goes better than the splint!

Oh, the girls are also scheduled to have major dental work on Wednesday... I'm really not so sure about that now.  With all this going on though, I'm grateful for several things: 1) health insurance, 2) being able to cover the dental work that insurance doesn't pay, and 3) that I don't have any baking jobs scheduled for this week! (or any other kind of job that would make it hard to take care of these kids...).  We are very lucky that things like this don't break us.  Not every family can say the same.