Always Make A Memorable Exit?

Well, we had finished our conference and a few brief visits and were scheduled to leave the country.  We had decided to take two days family time and go camping right before we left.  We arrived at the campground and barely set up the tent when my second son came over to me holding his arm.  He had fallen out of a tree.

I looked at it and it didn't look good, so I drove him to the nearest ER where he got put in a cast.  He seems to have broken it n the growth plate and will need to be seen later.  He was in a lot of pain for the whole camping time.

When we had finished camping and were ready to leave, we hit the grocery store for two items before we went to leave.  It was getting dark when we were ready to pull out, but I decided I would use the toilet and my oldest son wanted to return the cart.  He did, and as I was walking in, I saw a older lady with a back splint on pushing her cart over to her car.  I called my son and pointed to the lady.  I am training him to be a gentleman, so he stepped over and offered to help her unload her groceries.  I went in to use the bathroom.

When I came out, my son was walking towards me with a funny look on his face.  I thought that he was feeling strange because the lady gave him money.  Sometimes old ladies insist and he feels awkward about it.  So I walked towards him, but then saw he was holding his elbow.  He said, "Mom, something happened."

I reached out and pulled up his fairly long t-shirt sleeve and gasped!  I thought he had been stabbed or attacked in the dark parking lot.  A large piece of his arm seemed to be missing and fat and tissue hung down from a gaping wound.  He began to cry and say, "Mom, I'm sorry!  I'm sorry!"

Sorry?  What had happened?  I hollered at a checker to grab their first aid kit right now and get me an abd. pad.  Then I asked him who hurt him and if he was ok.

No.  It wasn't a random attack, but an injury.  Hard to believe such a thing could happen in the parking lot of a grocery store in just two minutes, but it did.  He loves gymnastics and had seen what looked like parallel bars above the cart return where he took the old lady's cart.  Like any boy, he had swung on them.  As he jumped off, his under arm caught on a little metal tab sticking out which used to hold a sign at one point.  That ripped a huge gash out of his arm.  It was about 4x3x3 inch triangle with pieces out on his shirt and hair.  It was so big that the firemen who responded went out to search the parking lot for any piece of his arm they could salvage.  Actually, it was all there, just hanging in tatters under his elbow.

The checkers brought me a first aid box which the biggest bandage in it was a 4x4 gauze.  Ha!  I hollered at them to go open a package of dishtowels or something, but get something fast!  They came back with paper towel, so I grabbed that and put pressure on it and held it above his head.  They called the ambulance, and we got our first ride in one.

It was a long night.  Eventually, we decided that my husband would go ahead and leave with the three, and I would stay with the injured one.  I quickly scratched on a paper the second's pain medication schedule, kissed him goodbye, and they left. 

It took the surgeon one and a half hours just to do the stitching.  I stayed with him as it was done under a local.  He had just eaten a huge Mexican meal, and no one wanted to risk putting him under.  It took them half an hour to freeze the wound.  We lost count of those shots - that was when he was trembling and crying at the pain of them sticking needles in his wound.  Besides that one time, he was calm enough and brave through the whole event with almost no crying at all.  We stayed the night in the hospital, and he was stable enough that we could leave the next day.

What an exit!  I tell you, I only wanted two quiet days camping by the lake!

Well, pray for these two.  The broken arm will have to be X-rayed again to see how it is.  It may be the growth plate and I don't really know what that will mean.  The cut on the arm will be ok if the tattered skin will stay alive and "take".  They were concerned that it won't because of the state it is in, and then he will need a skin graft to cover the wound.  We're praying it heals easily.  We do have decent medical care where we are - not the easiest to navigate, but we are confident that they will be able to address any issue the boys have later.

It is good to be home - even if all we are doing is lying around resting right now.  I need to keep two very active boys still.