There's a First Time For Everything

Grace is visiting her father in Arizona this week.  She texted me yesterday morning and said that they gave her rollerblades for Christmas.  I asked if she got wrist guards too.  She said she did.  I commented to my coworkers that she'd probably fall and break her arm.  Within an hour, I received a call from her father.  They were in the emergency room because Grace fell and broke her arm.  Oops.  She was skating as fast as she could which made her hit the ground even harder.  She broke her right arm.  She's right handed.

In the emergency room, she tried to come up with ways that she could still rollerblade.  She thought that maybe it would be safer in the house.  She wasn't pleased when both her father and I told her that she wouldn't be rollerblading anywhere until her arm was better.

When the doctor asked her to rate her pain on a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being the worst, she said it was a 10.  They clarified and said that 10 would feel like her arm was going to fall off.  She changed her answer to 9 because she didn't want her arm to fall off.

 

After they got her arm immobilized, gave her some codeine, and sent her on her way, she called.  This is how the conversation went:

Grace:  There's a first time for everything!
Me:  I hope this is the last time!
Grace:  Hmm...probably not.
Me:  I don't want you getting hurt again!
Grace:  I don't want to get hurt either, but you never know.

She called again in the evening.  That conversation went like this:

Grace:  Mom!  Do you know what my arm feels like?
Me:  Actually, I broke the same bone in the same area so I really do know.
Grace:  No, Mom!  Do you know what it FEEEEEEELS like?  It feeeeeels like it's grooooowing.
Me:  Like growing pains?
Grace:  Yeah, but WORSE!
Me:  That's a really good way to describe it.

She called again to say goodnight:

Grace:  I'm going to try to sleep now.
Me:  Do the pain meds make you sleepy?
Grace:  NOPE!  I thought they would but they don't!  They make it hurt a little less though.  They make my fingers feel like they're asleep.
Me:  That's probably from the swelling.
Grace:  I try to move my fingers sometimes, but it doesn't work.
Me:  Be careful.
Grace:  I know, Mom.



Overall, she was one heck of a trooper.  She didn't cry for long and she charmed her doctor and nurses.  They even signed her temporary cast.  Now, she needs to come home so I can hug her and love her and take care of her.  Being 1,000 miles away from your baby when she gets hurt really f'n sucks.