Saturday brought Jeff and I some interesting cricks from sleeping on a sub-twin slide out couch bed. All things said, it was still much better than the instrument of torture that Williamson Medical put me through during the births.
But who cares about us? It’s all about William. And rightly so.
We arrive at Vanderbilt. I pull up to the emergency room entrance, and let Jeff get out and pull William out. He had slept the entire way up, so this wasn’t exactly welcome from his standpoint.
Jeff takes him inside the Emergency room while I race into the adjoining parking garage. They tell me later that I should have left the van outside and let the valets take care of it. I didn’t see any, and didn’t know about it then, but it all works out. By the time I find a spot and get back to the ER, Jeff is in a wheelchair with William in her arms about to be rolled back.
We dashed off to the clinic on Royal Oaks Blvd. Greg called the daycare and spoke with the director. He put her on the speaker phone and told her that we wanted a written report of what had happened, how did he fall. She got the teacher and answered the question. The teacher said that he had been pushing a large plastic truck around and tripped over his own feet. He went down and didn’t get back up. Several teachers had looked him over without finding anything wrong (not known if anyone other than his teacher knew about the fall). The director apologized and said procedure had not been followed. She had not known when talking to me on the phone about the crying that he had fallen. A lot of time was spent with ‘procedure was not followed.’ Greg told her that this was the largest bone and he wanted a writeup. She said she’d give him a copy of her paperwork but that they would not file an accident report after the fact.
We were seen almost immediately and I was stopped from doing the paperwork. The specialist had looked at the x-rays and told us that we had to go to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. He said that a special table was needed to put on Williams cast and it was only available there. Greg had taken William from the van and never put him down. We got directions and the dr’s name at Vanderbilt and left. We called back once to see if the children’s hospital had an emergency room or if there was a central ER for Vanderbilt.
We decided to go pick MaryVic up. Called the daycare and told the director we had to go to Vanderbilt and were on the way to get Mary. She had her ready at the door. Came to the van while Greg was loading Mary and apologized, looking tearful. We stopped and got gas. I called a co-worker about the situation and once Greg was back in the van, we called some friends. They were extremely gracious and when Greg asked them for a huge favor, to take care of Mary while we went to the hospital, they agreed. We dropped Mary off and were back on the way to Vanderbilt. William was largely okay in the back being still and watching a movie.
I’m walking slowly back to the room, with William huddled in close, head on shoulder. If I move slowly and purposely, he doesn’t move, and he’s ‘ok’. Ten feet from the room, I see the doctor looking at the film on a lightboard. The straight leg shot has a break on the femur that I can easily see from 10 feet away. The frogleg shot isn’t as glaring, but it’s obvious, especially as I get closer.
I would. Quite rapidly and quite loudly.
William, we believe, would do so as well, although probably not as much. None the less, I think he would have cried… a lot.
Greg, having returned from Mexico early this morning, was at home. Jeff had just come home from work to try and take a nap…. having turned a shade of green. Mary, William, at Daycare.
Jeff receives a call from Daycare – William has been crying for an hour and half, and did we have any suggestions to calm him down? They believed it was separation anxiety, since he had been home with Grandma all week. We didn’t, so the conversation ended with if he doesn’t calm down in the next thirty minutes, you’ll need to come get him. They also said he was refusing to walk and had to be carried to lunch. I commented that it was odd considering he ran into class that morning. Jeff says “Coming and getting him isn’t a problem.”
So, Jeff gets up, gets William’s Tiger (only thing I could think of that might be of comfort to him) and heads to Daycare. I got there and knew that all the children were down for naptime. I went and knocked on the door, no answer. Looked through the window panes on the sides of the doors and tired rapping when I saw someone. Called 4 times to let them know I was outsided. Finally the husband of the owner who was sitting in the office heard me rapping and opened the door. He told me that William hadn’t eaten any lunch and seemed pretty miserable.
I went straight to Williams classroom and his teacher met me at the gate. She told me that he had fallen asleep but wasn’t staying asleep. He’d wake up and cry. She said he had taken a fall but that nothing seemed wrong with him. She had looked him all over and asked other teachers to check him too. He started crying while we were talking and I went over there to him. I picked him up and as I was lifting him, he goes, “owwww….” I told her that I was taking him to get checked by the dr. Might as well be safe. She concurred and patted him on the back as we left.
He cried all the way to the van and then as I was putting him in. Once he was in and sitting he seemed okay. I thought one leg seemed slightly more swollen than the other. Nothing huge but it made me think emergency room. I called Greg and headed home. On the way I would lift the leg to knee height and he would start crying again enough that I looked at him and promised not to touch his leg again.
We’re home with William “Spica” Nicholson.
It’s 8:30 Saturday night. The Family is together. Things are better.