Glidewell's Adventures: CAST and CREW

Last evening, while J&J Abbot were visiting over a tub of popcorn and telling stories of how much we disliked health insurance red-tape and hospital billing offices, one of our kids decided to slide off the top bunkbed headfirst. There was quite a thud-crash heard thru the ceiling, followed by the usual sirens and wails of pain.

After a cursory overview of the situation, we determined there was no risk of loss of life at this point, but Stormie was keenly aware of her left wrist. The usual kiss to make it feel better seemed to work, and off to bed again so we could finish our conversation about how much we detested emergency room visits.

Then this morning, Storm would not climb down from her bed, or use her left hand. That's when we knew this might be more than just a first degree owie. I took some time to examine and compare both arms and hands and diagnosed a possible broken arm.

We were going to Hanover to go shopping anyway, so we thought we might stop by the hospital/clinic to get an X-ray or two. We drove to the Hanover Hospital, and the family ate lunch in the car while I went in to say "Hi" and check things out. I walked several hallways, had intruded into several "staff only" areas before I found a soul. This soul was playing Solitaire on her computer and pointed me to the reception desk, on the opposite end of the faculty.

The receptionist wanted my Canadian Health Card, but I didn't have one, not being Canadian. She took my Insurance card, and proceeded to type something on her computer for half hour or so. I think she was sending a detailed email to her boyfriend, but eventually she gave the card back and told me to bring the "patient" to the nurse playing solitaire on the other end of the building.

So I brought the fam into the waiting room. Check out the sign we saw as we entered!

Since Aurora had quite a Bark, we decided to put one of those masks on her. They didn't have any "kid size" masks, so the mask covered her whole face. We solved the problem by cutting holes in the mask for her to peek out. We were going to cut holes in it for her nose and smile, but that might defeat the anti-germ purpose of the mask.

X-rays were kinda fun. Storm liked the idea of having pictures taken of her bones. We wore a "heavy apron" for the photo shoot. Sorry, no cameras allowed in the X-ray room.

The X-rays showed not a crack or fracture, but a compression in one of the forearm bones. Looked like a bulge in a pipe. The good news was it didn't need to be "set". Doc said it would heal pretty much on it's own, but a cast would immobilize and protect it for about three weeks.