6:50am "I don't feel good. I don't want to go to school." I told her she'd be fine (her nose was stuffy). I wish I would have kept her home.
7:55am bell rings and off she goes happily into the classroom
8:30-9:40am Harriette & I go to the park and to dance class.
10-12noon - Harriette & I decide to go to ride Small World at Disneyland before picking up Molly at 1
12:07pm - phone rings. We are on the tram back to the parking lot.
12:10pm - I listen to my messages. School nurse. Molly is injured and may have broken her left arm.
Brian calls me and he's on his way home. I race over to school and I'm there by 12:30. I pick Molly up. The nurse has put her arm in a cardboard cast and wrapped it up. The nurse wheels her in a wheelchair out to the car since Harriette is crying now. I load Molly up and start toward home. I call Cappy to meet us at home so he can watch Harriette. Gramma Ata was already on her way down from Cambria because she had a dr. appt on Thurs.
Brian is home waiting with Cappy (who expects to leave after he sees that Brian is home) but he steps up and hangs out with Harriette at home until Gramma gets there (around 5ish).
1:30pm - we make it to the ER in Harbor City (Kaiser)
2:30pm - X-rays were rough because we had to take off the temp cast and position her arm. This is the first time I see how swollen and wrong her arm looks. She is in a lot of pain. Technician says you didn't hear it from me but it's pretty apparent break. We head back to the ER to a bed. Dr. shows us the X-ray (that's the time when I lose it because it's like a cartoon image of an x-ray - completely broken but a clean break). The orthopedic surgeon is called and he comes down to explain that surgery is required and tells us exactly what is going to happen tonight and over the next few months.
They re wrap her arm (she are both in agony - her in physical pain and me watching and trying to calm us both down). Brian was out of the room at the time calling into work and letting them know he would not be in the next day. After he came back, I left to cry a lot and call my mom/dad/sis and give updates. While I was gone, poor Molly got an IV. Brian said it was a good thing I was not there. That was truly the worst thing ever to watch. I wish I would have been there but I don't think I would have been helpful. Brian is a great great father and our daughter is a trooper and a half.
4pm - Admitted and brought up to Pediatrics. By the way, the staff and medical team at Kaiser are all amazing. I mean amazing. All of them. We were able to have a private room and watch tons of movies.
7:30pm - ok surgery time. Wheeled her off down to pre-op.
7:30-11pm - WAITING. We read books. She fell in and out of sleep but was so uncomfortable but still a doll. She was still wearing her uniform and we had to cut it off. She did not like that but understood. We promised some shopping. The other horrible thing was that she couldn't eat or drink and she was not happy about that.
11pm - finally surgery. Prep took about 30min and the actual surgery only 10 minutes. No incision was made but they had to straighten out and realign the bones and hold them in place with I think 2 pins. They did say she had upper respiratory issues so they had to suction that out. Everyone explained everything very carefully and answered all our questions. There was one nurse who was a bit too casual about talking about fixing the IV and having to insert another one (which sent Molly into a bit of a panic because of all the trouble they had in ER) and they wheeled her out while she was not as calm as possible. We did not care for that AT all but it was hopefully rougher on us than her. One of the nurses came out and told us how he got her to talk about Harriette and she was doing fine.
Midnight - finally out. Came out sleeping. Watched her sleep for an hour.
1:30am - wheeled back up to her room and she slept. Brian stayed with her and I went home to relieve poor Cappy and Gramma and make sure Harriette was OK.
Gramma had her dr appt on Thurs (12/9/10) in the morning so I waited until she came back and got back to the hospital right around 11:30am. They had taken her IV out and she was happy but the tape was hard to get off so she was happy to see me when that was happening. We waited around until about 2:30 to be seen by her doctor and finally got to get going (of course after getting some pain med).
She slept well in our bed last night (and tonight) surrounded by pillows. She was walking around today. Her friend Taylor (from Ms. Hart's class/Oakwood last year) came over to visit which she loved. She got to go outside. Brian got her a sling. School is going to be a bit challenging since she can't go out to recess. And I need to see if any of her uniforms will fit over the cast.
So in 3 weeks (Dec. 30) she will get the temp cast / brace taken off and the pins will come out (not looking forward to that - it's supposed to be pretty traumatic). Then she'll get a more permanent cast for 4-6 more weeks, then therapy to make sure it's healing and movement is back. We've got a long haul ahead of us. Molly is a warrior, strong and unstoppable. She is so sweet and I HATE that she has to go through this. I know it's just one of those things but I cannot stand to see her in any kind of pain or discomfort. Harriette is going to grow up very quickly now. I am going to need a lot of patience and some booze. Wish us luck. We are going to need it.
