Katherine was in better shape today - starting to feel more comfortable with her cast. Kara told me that Katherine went to the bathroom earlier and Kara heard some shouting so she went over to the door to ask if Katherine needed any help. Here's what Katherine said back:

 

"In the BATHROOM. HELLO! Broken arm here..."

 

*sigh*. Welcome to our next month. By the way, this is the only pair of pajama tops she has that button up and so can be put on easily. The cast runs to halfway between her elbow and shoulder - you're seeing less than half of it here.

 

 

Oh yeah, Alex is still around too. He's pretty cheeky though. This is his current favourite toy: a spherical piggy bank that I have to open. Then I have to sit with him to make sure he doesn't put any coins in his mouth. Oh well, it's fun and it's something to do.

 

Check this out, you can totally see the virus spot on his left cheek. That'll be the cold he has the day after tomorrow announcing its presence.

 

The thing on his chin is not a virus spot. I think it's chocolate, actually. Cadbury Twirl, to be specific. Or some other random kid goo. He was really messy at this point. I had to clean him off with a wipe before I put his PJs on.

 

That was yesterday. The day she broke her left arm.

 

I was at work around 5PM (BST) wondering how I was going to get 45 minutes worth of stuff done in 20 when my mobile rang. I saw that it was Kara and answered.

 

"I'm just wondering when you are leaving because, well, Katherine really hurt herself and I don't know if we should be going to A&E - I think she broke her arm."

 

OK. That doesn't sound good. Then, stupidly, I say, "can I talk to her?" Kara tells me that she keeps asking for me and wants me to.

 

I look up and realize that although it's 5PM there are still people in the office. The open plan office. And I proceed to talk to my daughter aloud. That went OK, but then Kara says, "can you talk to Alex too, he's freaking out."

 

That's kindof a problem, because Alex is more at the snooky wooky stage if you know what I mean. But I get through it without making a complete fool of myself (at least, as far as I'm concerned - the folks in the office might disagree).

 

But this is supposed to be about Katherine. Well, obviously I drop everything and run home. I find Katherine in a terrible state, clutching her left arm gingerly with her right. Her left is limp and swollen and she has a look of fear, pain and tears on her face that I haven't seen yet. Kara is still wondering about the A&E. My hand brushes the side of her left arm. Katherine howls. I look at Kara.

 

"Of course we're going to A&E." (A&E is 'accident and emergency' - the UK equivalent of the ER)

 

But getting to the A&E is complicated even though it's actually quite close - near Paddington Station. A taxi will be hard to get at 5:45PM the evening before a four-day long weekend. (That's right, in the UK today was Good Friday and Monday is Easter Bank Holiday, or something like that, so we all get a four day weekend.) I decide to drive, but then we decide that the whole family will come.

 

So we get everyone dressed and ready to go and hustle into the car. I drop off Kara and Katherine and park the car. Katherine is in such pain that Kara has to carry her all the way through the inevitable registration, triage, etc. The good news is that she is prioritised highly, especially in the X-ray, and so each step in the process moves relatively quickly. In a four hour trip there, we got a triage, initial diagnosis, X-rays, pain medication, a second opinion from an orthopaedic doctor, a third opinion from the head of staff of that department, a temporary plaster cast and a follow up appointment for a permanent replacement.

 

Now I should say that the pain medication turned into a disaster. You see, we had already given Katherine Tylenol. At the hospital they wanted to give her Ibuprofin, or some variant of it. She is allergic to it. So they came over with a large syringe of clear liquid. It turned out to be codeine and a lot of it. Now, you can't really tell the dosage from the amount of liquid, but I think it was a lot of medication. Katherine took it even though it tasted terrible. She hadn't eaten yet, though, and this stuff went right to her stomach and turned it into a knot. So now, in addition to the pain of her arm, she is racked by waves of terrible stomach pain from the codeine. When these things hit she moves involuntarily at some times causing her to affect the position of her broken arm, that then causes terrible pain. It was awful, absolutely awful. The nurses who put the cast on did the best they could, as did the X-ray technician, but it was really painful for her.

 

So we finally get all set and into the car to go home. About two blocks from the house Katherine starts to get really animated. Then she starts throwing up all over the place. All the way home. When we got to the front of the house it was like a military drill. The car screeches to a halt and the driver door is already open. I'm working the soiled stuff away from her whilst Kara gets the door ready behind me.

 

Katherine ended up in my bed with Kara and I ended up on the futon in the living room, by myself, by the way.

 

And so how did it all happen? Katherine was sitting on a built-in cabinet about knee-high (for an adult). The cabinet turns a corner making an L, and the TV is in the corner. She's watching TV with her feet propped up on the other side of the TV. She gets so distracted by the show that she loses her balance and doesn't realise it until she's already behind the point of recovery. She goes down to the floor hard and in the process her left arm gets pinned behind her back.

 

Although the break is not clearly visible in the X-rays, the second and third doctors we saw told us she was very, very lucky. It is a simple break and should heal quickly as such, but it was very close to being much, much worse.

I can't say I've been to Waterloo Station, but there are a lot of things to do with kids there or nearby. Lately, we've had our nanny, L, come in on Saturday for a few hours to watch the kids. Yesterday she took them out on a big trip to Waterloo Station and the carousel and other kids activities thereabouts. Do you think they enjoyed it?

 

 

Apparently, they did not want to come home. The beautiful thing about this is that L also understands that the best outcome for us is if the kids are very active and don't sleep a lot. This makes bedteam really easy and bedtime happens very shortly after L returns.

 

 

L, bless her, took the kids to Giraffe. According to her account, they both sat at the table properly for 45 minutes and ate a good meal. Needless to say, we've given them plenty of opportunities to display the same behavior with us and it hasn't happened.

 

 

Photo credit for these pictures goes to L who thoughtfully brought a camera along.