Thumbs Up! *

I had great plans for today. You shouldn't do that you know, make great plans. They always get changed. Instead of getting a zillion things done, I spent 3½ hours at the emergency room, took a nap, and made dinner. At least I did get a nap :).

Some days the kids and I drive Sir to the sky train or the bus stop in the mornings. Today we took him to the bus stop and since it's less than a 15 min round trip, we usually eat breakfast when we get home. Only when we got home this morning, Emma closed the sliding door of our van on her hand.

Thankfully, it was just her thumb, and I was able to get the door open almost right away, but the door had completely shut and her little thumb was pretty sore. I couldn't tell if she'd broken anything, and the immediate swelling didn't help matters - especially since she wouldn't let anything touch her thumb if she could help it.

After we got in the house, I threw some wet paper towels in the freezer to chill for a minute, and tried to get Emma to keep something cold on her hand, but she kept taking everything off. I called our doctor's office and asked them if I could just bring her to them to look at (I didn't think there was much that could be done for a thumb injury, much less a toddler's thumb), but they told me whoever saw her would want x-rays, and they recommended I take her to the hospital.

I tossed some bread in the toaster and while the older kids ate their toast, I made babysitting arrangements, nursed Butler and grabbed some snacks and books for my bag in preparation for the ER. The whole while, Emma kept bursting out in crying fits and that in itself reassured me I wasn't overreacting. Emma is my toughest kid. She takes knocks right and left and keeps on going with the best of them. So for her to keep complaining meant that it really hurt a lot.

After I dropped Dolly, PC and Butler off, we headed to the smallest hospital around here. Its usually less crowded than the bigger ones, and you get seen faster. Except today they had a whole waiting room of patients arrive pretty much all at the same time so it took us an hour before we even saw the triage nurse. Then while we were waiting after triage, an inpatient slipped and fell in the main lobby and the ER department had to CALL an ambulance so they could get a stretcher to move the injured patient. I saw him go by later with his head all wrapped up in a huge bloody bandage - he was probably in his 60s or older.

When all of that settled down, we were finally sent down the hall to wait for x-rays. Emma did really well holding still for the pictures and from what I could see, her little thumb bones looked fine. Of course, you have to go back to the ER and wait for the Doctor to read them and tell you that you can go. Emma was pretty good the whole time, and I was really glad that I'd packed the snacks and books. She was the only kid there during our visit, and I think that might have had something to do with all the charmed employees. The triage nurse gave her a coloring book and crayons, the charge nurse gave her a teddy bear, a paramedic gave her a SECOND teddy bear, and the doctor who treated her, gave her a popsicle after he drained the blood that had accumulated under her thumbnail to relieve the pressure. Nobody wanted her to have bad memories of her visit - I just hope she doesn't have too many fond memories, since I can think of a lot of other places that are more convenient for me to have her visit!

Anyway, Emma turned out to be fine. She'll just have a really sore thumb for a few days. By the time we got out of the hospital, I was sure Butler was going to be starving - at least I hoped he was still starving. He wasn't, but he was happy to eat again when we got home. The rest of the day was pretty dull compared to the beginning, but naps, grocery shopping and dinner are never that exciting anyway.

So, my great plans of prep work and packing for our move never happened today, but tomorrow is another day, and I'll need to make the best of it, if we're going to be ready to move in 23 days. Just remind me not to panic. :)


*(perhaps 'Out' would be more appropiate..)