Thankful Through Adversity? A Night in the ER

As a mom, I don't think there is anything worse than seeing one of your precious children in pain.  Although, I generally tend to believe everything happens for a reason, some things, like a child suffering or in pain just rips my heart out and I struggle with the "why?" of it.

Yesterday our very active, baseball playing middle son's team made it to the Tournament of Champions.  Unless you play Little League, you may not realize what a big deal this is for the kids.  They were one of two teams from their division to make it through the playoffs.  They'll begin playing other area teams next weekend.  It's quite an accomplishment for the boys!

Not only did they make it to TOC, during yesterday's game, our boys completed a TRIPLE PLAY!  This is huge!  It was the sixth inning, score was tied.  The opposing team had the bases loaded.  Their batter hits an amazing ball toward shortstop.  It was a tough catch, but our shortstop reached for the ball and caught it.  In the meantime, runners at 1st and 3rd advanced thinking it was a sure thing.  Quickly the shortstop throws the ball to our son at third, getting the third base runner out.  Our son seeing the chaos that was ensuing and listening to coaching, sees 1st base runner well off the plate and then shoots the ball to the first baseman getting that runner out!  This was some GOOD baseball!  We were elated!  The boys completed a rare triple play.  Our umpire commented in all his years umping he'd only seen a triple play one other time and that was at a Little League Majors game.

We went home from the game spent.  We ended up losing in the 7th inning, but it was a well played game.  We're so proud of our boys.

The kids went to the pool to enjoy the summery afternoon.  In the evening we went to the park to play what our kids call the tennis ball game.  It's like baseball, but with a soft ball of some sort.  We were all playing, laughing, and having great fun with another baseball family.  Then our middle son, running into home, decided to do a shoulder roll/somersault.  We heard the crack.  He was on the ground crying in pain.  If I could have picked him up and run him somewhere I would have.  I felt so helpless.  We had walked to the park and had to wait for his dad to run home, get the car and drive back.  It felt like the longest minutes of my life.

I drove him to and Urgent Care close to home and they told us they couldn't treat him.  He'd have to go to an area hospital emergency room.  We were back in the car for another ride.  The whole time he's trying to be strong, but I could tell he was in a great deal of pain.

We made it to the emergency room.  A room of chaos!  I felt like I was in a scaled down version of television program ER.  There were kids throwing up, parents running for vomit bowls, a woman who had her face attacked by a dog, a guy with his eyebrow busted open, another guy with blood all over and his thumb wrapped, someone with rectal pain (I know this is too much information, but this was our reality last night), and many others.  Along with all the patients there was an abundance of security guards, police and bullet proof glass.  Welcome to St. Joseph's Hospital of the 21st century.

We waited, and waited, and waited.  We were processed through a couple stations, but still hadn't been seen by someone who cared.  Finally, after about an hour and a half in the ER (in addition to the hour it took us to get there) I went to one of the nurses and asked how much longer it would be.  The two young nurses gave me a glaring look and casually said, "It might be a LONG time."  They then commented when a room became available they'd let me know. 

Apparently, someone overheard this conversation.  A young man named Joey (a nurse also), who cared about a 9-year old kid in a baseball uniform in a great deal of pain immediately called us over.  He took a look at our son, began evaluating his clavicle and then turned around and in a quiet yet firm, serious voice said to the other nurses, "We're looking at a fractured clavicle here.  Why has no one seen this kid or administered some pain medication to him?" 

Joey got things rolling.  Right then and there he called out to a doctor asking for the okay to administer some pain meds.  He put our boy's arm in a sling and we had a room in minutes.  A minute later we were in the x-ray room.  I stood behind the wall with the x-ray technician.  Immediately I knew we were looking at a broken collarbone.

On a side note, our son's collarbone was broke at birth and he regularly asks me questions about it.  It's hard to know what a newborn experienced with a broken collarbone, so it's hard for me to give him definitive answers.  Now we know what's it's like and it makes me feel doubly bad for him.

Joey was our hero last night!  We were soon on our way home after a few more processing procedures.

This whole thing really hasn't hit him yet.  When you're an active, sports-oriented kid it's hard to imagine a few weeks off.  Yesterday, prior to the accident we sent our invitations for his baseball birthday party.  He's supposed to play in a soccer tournament coming up.  He'll miss out on baseball for the next few weeks.  We're bummed.

I'm sure there is some good that comes out of this.  I'm thankful that it's a break that heals on its own.  I'm thankful he's been such a trooper.  I'm thankful for the lessons in life we get to learn.  I'm thankful he's blessed with a brother who loves him and was awake until midnight shedding a couple tears on his brother's behalf and texting me checking in.  I'm thankful we serve a God who comforts us in times like this.  I'm thankful I was there to hold my sweetheart and be a shoulder he could lean on.  I'm thankful for nurses like Joey who are still compassionate even when overwhelmed with patients.  I'm thankful we're all healthy other than this little mishap.  I'm so incredibly thankful for our family!



I'm thankful this sweetheart is still smiling.