Guilt:1, Surly:0
The doctor looked at me as if I were Rose West and I gulped and tried hard not to cry as he tapped Small Person's x-ray with an accusing biro.
When did this injury occur? he barked, heavy on the accusation with just a soupcon of contempt. Um....Sunday? I offered, glancing around in case of imminent attack by earnest women wearing cordurouy skirts and too much sympathy.
Both (emphasised with a tap of the biro) bones in her wrist (tap, tap) are broken. Um....? I offered again, convinced that I was being monitored through a two-way medicine cabinet on the wall.
So there you go. I swanned off to a concert last night as my daughter spent a second night trying to sleep with a broken wrist. Awful scenes flashed through my memory - her running in from the garden shouting that she thought she'd broken her wrist, me telling her to go to sleep and stop making a fuss on Sunday night..but we checked. She had full rotation in her wrist, could wriggle all her fingers. There was no swelling, no bruising. I travelled home from the hostipal with my head swimming from visions of the Ex refusing to bring her home on Saturday after her nights with him, of social workers and trauma. And then I rang him, and he airily informed me that he had checked it last night at his Mum's house (he's a qualified first-aider) and had decided for himself that it was just a sprain, otherwise he would have taken her to A&E there and then.
I felt better after that. The endless stories from work colleagues about the time their little brother/daughter/niece broke a wrist and went undiagnosed for days helped too. Hearing that my brother fell into the same trap with my nephew was also a comfort. So, I think I'm over it now. We're off to the fracture clinic in the morning, where Small Person gets to choose which colour bandages will finish off her full cast (pink, we think - although she did proclaim in the office this afternoon that she would ask for black, which gave everyone cause to look at me and piss themselves laughing), and I get to work from home tomorrow to give her some rest before going back to school on Thursday. So there it is. No harm done. Worse things happen at sea and all that.
In other news, the Foo Fighters absolutely brought the house down last night. I spent the whole gig gaping in disbelief at the sight of Dave Grohl a mere thirty feet from me. Happily, I managed not to rush the stage and hump his leg while weeping uncontrollably. I must be growing up.
Is today over yet? I'm tired.
When did this injury occur? he barked, heavy on the accusation with just a soupcon of contempt. Um....Sunday? I offered, glancing around in case of imminent attack by earnest women wearing cordurouy skirts and too much sympathy.
Both (emphasised with a tap of the biro) bones in her wrist (tap, tap) are broken. Um....? I offered again, convinced that I was being monitored through a two-way medicine cabinet on the wall.
So there you go. I swanned off to a concert last night as my daughter spent a second night trying to sleep with a broken wrist. Awful scenes flashed through my memory - her running in from the garden shouting that she thought she'd broken her wrist, me telling her to go to sleep and stop making a fuss on Sunday night..but we checked. She had full rotation in her wrist, could wriggle all her fingers. There was no swelling, no bruising. I travelled home from the hostipal with my head swimming from visions of the Ex refusing to bring her home on Saturday after her nights with him, of social workers and trauma. And then I rang him, and he airily informed me that he had checked it last night at his Mum's house (he's a qualified first-aider) and had decided for himself that it was just a sprain, otherwise he would have taken her to A&E there and then.
I felt better after that. The endless stories from work colleagues about the time their little brother/daughter/niece broke a wrist and went undiagnosed for days helped too. Hearing that my brother fell into the same trap with my nephew was also a comfort. So, I think I'm over it now. We're off to the fracture clinic in the morning, where Small Person gets to choose which colour bandages will finish off her full cast (pink, we think - although she did proclaim in the office this afternoon that she would ask for black, which gave everyone cause to look at me and piss themselves laughing), and I get to work from home tomorrow to give her some rest before going back to school on Thursday. So there it is. No harm done. Worse things happen at sea and all that.
In other news, the Foo Fighters absolutely brought the house down last night. I spent the whole gig gaping in disbelief at the sight of Dave Grohl a mere thirty feet from me. Happily, I managed not to rush the stage and hump his leg while weeping uncontrollably. I must be growing up.
Is today over yet? I'm tired.
posted by surly girl at 7:48 pm
28 Comments:
*Applauds Rose West line*
I saw The Foo's last year and even though I'm not a big fan, they rocked!
Oh....and sorry to hear about the little ones injuries.
But yay for The Foos.
I'm torn.
Sorry.
Take care
Oh the poor dear. But like you say, you DID check, and the signs were all good. And at least you eventually took her in so that her wrist did not heal wonkily and cause permanent damage and all that.
he he, SP now has some first class black mail material for future years. my mother is a nurse, and once let me walk around on a broken ankle for a day before my father got sick of the wailing and took me to the hospital!
SP is dealing with all this much better than SG or me. She's had a good nights sleep and is looking forward to the ice lolly treat when she gets back from the hospital this morning !
We've had lots of comforting comments from people who made a simialr decision as us as to whether hospital treatment was necessary. Turns out hindsight is a wonderful thing...
Hurray for hindsight! Broken wrists are quite hard to diagnose and they don't swell up that much. Well, mine didn't when I broke it although my sadistic teacher bandaged it so hard that no blood could actually circulate and made me write lines WITH THE BROKEN WRIST (!) for crying in gymnastics - because I had broken my wrist and they thought I was just making a fuss...
Black plaster - do we have a mini-goth in our midst! :-)
Undiagnosed broken wrist for a day or so, black cast? That's some cool chick you have.
just back from the hostipal. purple cast on, boomerang on the telly and a bag of nik naks for being a brave girl. beats school any day...
anyway. stop distracting me. i'm "working".
I did it too! I did it too! Child One fell out of a tree and snapped both his tibia and fibula. We didn't believe him. Sis in law who's an A&E nurse didn't believe him. Only took him to hostipal when he went all white and shaky and sweaty.
This was maybe 5 years ago. Still guilty.
What do you mean, stop distracting me? You stop distracting me with your witty irreverance. I'm working. Really.
see. that's what i need. stories of people who were worse to their kids than i was.
seriously. she ran in from the garden and told me she'd broken it. i was all "you're six. go and play".
the horror.
the ExW did it to MY son.
He innocently broke his thumb playing footy, he told her he had (he's 12) she ignored him and told him to stop making a fuss (little bruising, no swelling and mauch dramatic "but I can't bend it Mum"). Imagine him staring up at her with those big blue eyes from under that angelic basin cut of blonde locks, with tear starting. She still refused all pain relief and sent him off to school the next day...
Anyway, brave and sensible and clever (did I mention handsome too?) Daddy whisked him into casualty where the X-Ray did exactly the right thing and earned me about a century's worth of smugness and several squillion browny points more than she could ever earn. The hard heartless beast.
tra la la la. *Sings* "I'm good and she's mean" tra la tra la.
Smug?
Moi?
Oh, you bet I am.
(and hard at work, of course)
hostipal???
oh, poor Small Person. She must have been awfully brave dealing with the pain since Sunday. But don't blame yourself, Surly. It is really hard to tell if a wrist is broken.
My boyfriend's ex waited for about 3 days before bringing their daughter to the emergency room with an fractured ankle. She thought it was just 'twisted' from falling off her bicycle so she fed the girl tylanol and put ice on it. Nice.
my slightly larger SP still reminds me of the time I pulled his arm out of it's socket (a common occurance apparently!). The health visitor turned up the next day for a routine visit (i'd forgtten she was coming) I almost gave him up there and then and slapped the handcuffs on myself. So take comfort in the fact that you didn't actually inflict the injury on her yourself! purple cast tho, there was never such a thing in my day........
same thing happened to me. me when i was a sp, i mean. greenstick break they called it when the xrays came back...not split in two, just splintered a bit on the side.
when i broke my ring finger later that month i was informed by parents that since nothing was actually poking out of the skin, i would be fine and to quit whining. doctor? fuck.
still have a bump there to this day.
...but it made me STRONGER!
hell, that was dickensian. sorry.
With no bruising there's little way to really tell.
As a make you feel better story a good friend of mine was with her hubby and 2 year old son in Portugal. Father and son where tossing stones into the water and father accidentally threw one right onto the head of the little boy. Flashing lights, emergency air lift back to England, the works. Little boy is fine, but the marraige aaaaalmost didn't survive.
Nothing like being a mom to give you lethal doses of guilt.
Yes - my hand is still crooked thanks to those goddam sluts of teachers I had!
It's always hostipal in my house, funny thing. And subramine, mazagine, suddenerly, proberly, and so on. It comes of being cooped up 24/7 for years with toddlers.
Doctors miss them too y'know.
I broke my wrist playing football about 10 years ago. Went to A&E, had the x-ray, they told me I was fine, then put a tube grip on my wirst and sent me home. 48 hours later I get a call from a registrar telling me to come back as they'd missed a fracture...had a cast on for 4 weeks.
They had 7 years medical training to make the same mistake as you, so go easy on yourself!
We all just do our best SG. That's all you can do.
♥
Hockle Wockle Bockle (hot water bottle).
She'll live:)
At least you didn't find out until after the concert (can you tell I'm not a parent????)
Eldest broke a rib in his first rugby game at school, and we didn't believe him for two weeks. (much crying of wolf in his past)Then we toook him to the doctore who said Oh well we wouldn't have done anything anyway.
Guilt? Er, no, more like indignation! How dare he be truly broken the first time I didn't believe him!
I try to take comfort in the no-win reality of parenting and doctors--if you take them in with a borderline condition, just "to be on the safe side," you're accused of being a drama-mama who's using her kid to seek attention; if you don't take them in with a borderline condition, just "to wait and see," you're a neglectful fool or worse. See, can't win.
And yeah, like they said above, xrays aren't so crystal clear anyway. My kid got an "all-clear" on an ER chest film, but four days later (while he was playing T-ball) I got a call, "the radiologist took another look, your boy's got pneumonia, he needs to start meds immediately." Um, can he finish this game, first?
pr and above are correct. i had one of those square wristbones poking out of place last year, visibly, horribly poking out, you could oog it around and everything. put it under the xray and voila: nothing. the technician and i were both mystified.
rose west got off scott free, btw!
I WANT NEWS OF QOTSA, DAMN YOU ALL.
I hate everyone. Except the poor, neglected Small Person. I'll light a candle for her.
WV: ptepmqas - a mystical hue, a cross between mauve and indigo, the eventual shade SP will apply to her cast.
Small People have an uncanny habit of making the loudest, most unholy noises when they scratch their finger with a feather and then absolutely nothing when they fall off a garden wall and fracture their thumb. One of my SP's spent 3 days complaining about a graze on his knee whilst his thumb slowly swelled.
They fall, they pick themselves up and bounce right back... happens to loads of us.
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