It could have been worse

On Sunday night I was doing Emma's laundry and stayed up to move it to the dryer since she needed her gym uniform in the morning. When I opened the laundry room door, to take care of this last chore before I got in bed, I stepped into a lake of water. No water was running so I woke Jim up and we got to work suctioning up the water. I was running the washer and dishwasher at the same time and there was a clog somewhere. It all backed up and emptied out of the basement shower drain onto the floor. As we are doing cleanup, Megan appears on the basement steps, yelling over the noise of the shop-vac, to say Bridget was on the floor crying. Megan, my monitor, comes to the rescue again.



I left Jim in the basement and went to help Bridget, and tuck Meg back in. Bridget was on the floor and crying very hard but she was also very sleepy. I wasn't sure if it was night terrors or if she was hurt. She had a hard time settling down and complained of her leg hurting, her finger hurting, her cheek hurting and her shoulder. It was all unclear except "don't touch me". After a while Jim came up and laid down with Bridget and I went back to get more water out of our basement carpet. Bridge woke up a few times that night and I began to suspect she broke her collarbone. Her arm didn't hurt at all but if I lifted her by putting my hand under the armpits or she used her arm to prop her body up, she screamed. Around 5 AM I concluded we would be making a trip to the ER. She fell back to sleep and I knew broken collarbones weren't life threatening, plus I knew they don't cast them so I let her sleep. Jim got the girls prepped for school as I got ready to go with Bridget. Bridget was exhausted and nervous anytime someone needed to move her. "Be gentle" she said as I carried her out to the van. Rachael had woken up that morning disagreeable but asked where Bridget was. I explained she was in the van because I was taking her to the hospital and Rachael's whole demeanor changed. Rachael came out and gave her a gentle kiss and spoke in a sweet reassuring voice. She is a great big sister. I had come back into the house because when I tried to open the van door the electric locks wouldn't work. The van's battery was dead. Jim and I both laughed. It was the only thing to do. As we hooked up the jumper cables Bridget sat in her booster seat complaining that she couldn't see because the hood was up. Jim jumped the van and got us on our way.



Bridget didn't like the idea of going to the hospital but she cooperated as I carried her in and checked in. St. Agnes was quick to see us and all of the staff was helpful and kind. There were other children and it made Bridget very anxious when she heard anyone crying. I pulled out the books that Jim had packed and it was a great distraction. An escort came with an over sized wheelchair to bring Bridge for an x-ray. She grabbed onto me and I asked if I could carry her instead. She was relieved and very interested in her bones as we discussed taking a picture of the inside where her bones were. Doing the x-ray was the worst part. Bridgie was scared to lay on the table and it hurt to lay her back on the x-ray board and sit her up again. After they took 2 views I pried her fingers of the sheets and carried her back. They confirmed that it was a broken collar bone, put a sling on and home we headed. She and I were both exhausted so after a "kid's show" we both napped for 2 hours. Bridget cried in pain when she woke up because she tried to sit up using her left side. Instead of the the sling at night Jim came up with the idea to use a ace bandage to secure her upper arm to her side. This was easy to sleep with and prevented her from using it.



Bridget isn't in pain unless she puts pressure on the bone or bangs it and luckily that isn't happening often. The first day she struggled to get out of a sitting position, so I found her scooting around the house on her bottom. Jim and I both showed her some techniques to get off the floor and she isn't scooting anymore. We have to help her climb in and out of seats but for the most part she is independent and in a good mood.



The basement carpet is still not all the way dry and now smells and our refrigerator is freezing up again for the 3rd time this month but most importantly Bridget will heal.

PS We recently moved Bridget into a big girl bed. I'll have to backtrack and tell you about that in a different blog. We are adding a railing to the bed so this doesn't happen again.