It was one of those rare times when the kids were playing by themselves and I was sitting at the computer in my jammies doing some taxes. Usually I only get taxes done if Jerel's watching them, but he had gone to help some people in the ward move. A while later I got a call from a friend in the ward, "Hey Mandy, how are you?" "Good! How about you?" "Well, I'm not really sure why I'm the one who got this job, but I'm supposed to call to tell you that Jerel fell out of one of the moving trucks and broke his arm." [My thoughts: 1. It's probably not really broken. 2. Why on earth was he hanging out of a truck while it was moving? {I found out later it was not a vehicle in motion, rather a truck used to move things. Wrong kind of "moving truck".}. 3. I was actually getting some taxes done, but I guess we'll go see if he's okay.] My friend gave me her husband's number since he was actually with Jerel, and I called him and he let me talk to Jerel, who basically said "I'm sure it's broken, it's just a matter of in how many places." [He's always so dramatic...] I said "Do you think maybe you should go see a doctor?" Jerel, "Yes, I need you to come get me and take me to the ER." Me "Okay, see you in a bit."
So I ran around and got dressed, packed a diaper bag, told Isaiah to grab a book to read, and off we went. I thought it would be a fun little family activity--we'd go get daddy, take him to the doctor, watch him get a cast, and probably stop for ice cream on the way home.
It didn't really go that way at all.
I got to the house where Jerel was helping them move. Jerel was sitting under an umbrella in the front yard with a blanket tied around him to hold his arm still. So I sauntered on over and asked if he wanted a ride somewhere. (By the way, the rest of everybody there just kept on moving things, which I thought was hilarious....boys are so different from girls!) One of the guys helped him get up and into the car, and as Jerel was wincing as I buckled his seat belt, the guys were saying I probably didn't need to worry about a seatbelt in a situation like this. But I told them a broken arm was bad enough, I didn't want a broken neck on top of it and continued to snap him in...yep, I'm a seat belt/car seat nazi.
We got to the ER and waited for close to an hour. We sat across the way from Jerel because anytime the kids got close to him the'd bump him and it would hurt more. We got out the book Isaiah had brought, one he picked out himself at the library a week before, "Broken Bones." Not kidding. Anyway, they finally called him back and we all went back to continue our fun little adventure. When the nurse started unwrapping the blanket from him I saw a big circle of blood on the blanket & his shirt. So I said "Honey, I'm just going take the kids out to the waiting room for a minute." [My thoughts: Ahhhhhhh! He's bleeding! That means there's a bone sticking out somewhere! This is not going to be the fun educational experience I was aiming for!]
So I called everyone in my phone until I finally found my dear friend Stephenie. I explained the situation and she came over immediately and got the kids for me. She ended up keeping them for 8 hours, lots of brownie points!
I went back in and they cut off Jerel's shirt and got him ready to x-ray. I didn't see any tree branches hanging out of him (I'm pretty sure that's what bones look like). But there was a break in the skin that was oozing. They x-rayed it and gave him lots of medication which did little to ease the pain. After the doctors there looked at the x-ray they decided it was too hard for them and they sent Jerel by ambulance to a local teaching hospital. At the time we both found this annoying because the other hospital was farther away and we just wanted it taken care of. But in hindsight, he ended up at a much better hospital with people with a lot more experience fixing arms.
I drove to the hospital and met Jerel in the ER there. They switched him to a different medication, which also didn't seem to help, and worked on booking the operating room. (Jerel was not happy about needing surgery but they made it clear it wasn't optional). I stayed with him until they took him back for surgery, I think around 7pm. I was nervous because he's never had surgery and things can always go wrong, but I was also relieved that he'd be put under soon and have a break from the pain. Once they took him back I headed home to get my kiddos; Jerel and I both thought the kids would do much better if we kept the kids to as normal a schedule as possible. So I kissed him and they wheeled him off and I headed home. To be continued. Because this post is already WAY too long!
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