Our Life Together

Somethings Always Broken

I run into my office after hearing my phone ring.  It rings again and I answer it right away.

"Hello?"

"Hi, Mrs. Pitt?"

"This is she."  I reply "Who is this?"

"This is Marie Brown, the school nurse." She answers "I have your son, William in my office right now.  He fell on his arm while playing soccer in gym, and I think he should be checked out."

"Okay, I can be at the school in about 20 minutes."  I respond before hanging up. 

I quickly grab Olivia from where she is playing on the floor and walk over to Brad's office.  Of course, I forgot that he's not here today because he's helping my dad with something. 

"I guess you get to go with."  I quickly grab my purse and some toys for her "You get to see Liam early today."

"Yay!" She yells excitedly.  Any chance she gets to see her brothers is the best thing ever.

I get her and all her extra crap in the car.  She talks to me the whole way to the school about random stuff and then gets pissed when I take her out of her car seat.

"It's just a few minutes."  I reassure her "You'll see Liam really soon." She still gets mad, so I carry her forcing her to go with.

I walk into the nurses office a few minutes later to see Liam.  He's sitting in a chair with ice resting on his arm.

"You okay?"  I ask.  He glares at me like he's miserable.

"I think it's fine."  He takes the ice off "See, I can move it."

"Put that back on your arm and sit down." I scold him and turn to the nurse "Should I take him right to the ER or make a doctor's appointment?"

"I would say the ER."  She answers "That way you can get everything done faster and they should be able to cast it if it's broken."

"Okay, thank you."  I smile turning back towards Liam "Do you need me to get your bag?" He hands it to me and I grab it with my free arm while balancing Olivia with the other.  She refuses to walk, and also says that I'm squeezing her.

"Mom, I really think it's okay."  Liam argues with me in the hospital parking lot "It doesn't hurt that bad."

"William,"  I sigh "You need to get it looked at.  It's swollen and bruised.  If it's broken and you don't get it fixed you're going to regret it."

"But they won't let me play football with a broken arm!" He protests "They'll know it's broken if I have a cast on it."

"They'll also know it's broken if the bone starts sticking out of it because you don't get it checked."  I grab his uninjured arm "Let's go."

We get checked into the hospital and wait in the waiting room that has toys for Olivia to play with.  Liam complains to me about making him get checked while she plays with a fake kitchen and makes me new "food" every minute.

"William Pitt?"  The nurse calls.  We get up and follow her back to the triage room.

"So I see you injured you arm." She sits behind a computer "How long ago did it happen?"

"An hour." He answers.

"Did you fall on it?  Get it stuck?  How did this happen?" She asks.

"I was playing soccer in gym class and fell."

"Okay."  She takes some quick vital signs before sitting back down "On a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worst, how bad does it hurt?"

"I guess a 5."  He says "It's better than it was when it first happened."

She hands him a new ice pack to hold on the arm and leads us back to a room.  Liam lays on the bed playing with every possible thing while I try to distract Olivia until Brad comes to get her. 

"Can you watch her for a minute?" I ask Liam "I'll go get you guys some snacks."

I quickly go to the vending machine I find some snacks they'll like.  They like different things so I end up going to two different machines before I hear a girl crying that sounds similar to Olivia and run back.

"What happened?!?" I ask handing Liam his food as I pick Olivia up off the floor "Did she fall?"

"Yeah."  He answers stuffing his mouth with chips "She was trying to climb up the bed."

"You're fine, baby."  I calm her down walking around the room.  The radiologist comes to get Liam a few minutes later for his Xrays and Olivia jumps right on the bed with my help.

"Where's Liam?" Brad walks in picking up Olivia "Did he get scared and run?"

"No, they just got him for Xrays a few minutes ago."  I hand him the diaper bag "He's trying to say the arm is fine.  He doesn't want them to cast it because then he can't play football."

Liam walks back in a minute later followed by a doctor.  Brad decides to stay and find out what's wrong.

"Well, he definitely fractured his wrist." The doctor holds up the x-rays for us "He fractured it right there, and if you look closely you can see a hairline fracture a few inches down."

"So he fractured it in two places?" Brad asks "Playing soccer?"

The doctor nods his head yes to answer him "It's actually common for this to happen while playing soccer.  The good news is that he has good, strong bones, so with a cast they should heal quickly.  I'd say 6 weeks."

"That's not too bad."  I say "Can you cast it here or do we need to go to the orthopedic?"

"We'll be able to cast it here."  He gets out a paper with different colors "You get to pick out of these colors, and then you're set."

Liam looks over the paper with Olivia, who excitedly helps him pick out the neon green color.  The doctor leaves a few minutes later and a nurse comes in to put the cast on and go over some directions with us.

Liam starts to laugh as we walk out of the hospital, so curious I ask what's so funny.

"I guess next time I should tie my shoes before playing soccer."