Sticks and stones and broken bones

Well, okay, only the last part. Got a call at the end of the day Friday, just before Labor Day weekend, just as I was about to leave to go up to retrieve the G4 and its fried hard drive. Hannah calls and says her mother has fallen off her bike at the school and hurt herself and I need to come and get them. I asked if Lee was able to talk, and she was, she said she thought she may have dislocated her shoulder and she needed me to manage the girls. So off I go, half wondering if I shouldn’t just call 911, but it only takes a few minutes to get there. I call again to figure out which entrance to go to, Lee answers and sounds worse to me but I’m almost there. I get there and she’s slumped against the wall, obviously very hurt. The girls are locking up their bikes. We get the last bike into the rack and load the girls into the truck, and I try to help Lee up and she screams from the pain. Get her into the truck, several more screams. She’s not looking good. Start to drive and the bouncing is too much for her, so at that point we decide to get her to the rescue squad, which isn’t far, because I’ll never get her to the hospital myself with the pain she’s in. I’m worried she’s headed toward shock. Get to the rescue squad, and no one is there. A mechanic from across the street is working in one of the bays and gets the dispatcher on the phone, and they send out the call and one of the ambulances arrives. In the meantime, I’m being asked questions that sound like they’re probing as to whether I broke her arm, but maybe I was being sensitive. Anyway, it took a while to get her into a sling and on a backboard, but they managed. They didn’t think it was broken, but they were wrong.
Calls to grandparents while taking the girls for a quick stop at home, they wanted their stuffed animals to comfort them. They had been so brave but once we had her in the hands of the rescue squad they both set to wailing, hugging each other in the back seat and crying their eyes out. Got the animals, some snacky stuff for the emergency room, and the bike rack, picked up the bikes on the way and off to the emergency room. We got to see Lee, more comfortable but still in awful pain, and then I sent the girls off with their grandparents for the night. We got to the emergency room around 4 and were out of there at about 9:30, had to stop at the only 24-hour pharmacy in the area on the way, which took forever, during which Lee slept in the car and I paced with worry that something might happen to her out there.
So all of Labor Day weekend was a blur of painkillers and Raisinets, “The Great Escape” and doing lots and lots of laundry. Her pain is less now but not gone. The break set well and won’t require surgery, thankfully. Two emergency room visits in one summer is enough, thank you.
Said it before, will say it again: I’m freaked out by being The Healthy One. That’s not how it’s supposed to be.
Finally felt safe taking time away for a run on Monday morning. Felt so good, I added twenty minutes. Race coming up. Need to train. Dammit!