Eilis only had one day of school this week, so Dram and Pop-pop got the brilliant idea that they would keep her for the week. I dropped her off on Monday, to be picked up on Friday. Of course, Eilis didn’t want to come home, because Dram’s house is full of anything but rules, meals in bed in front of the TV, milkshakes for breakfast, and ice cream cones round the clock.
On Monday evening, after Eilis spent a full day working outside in the leaves with Pop-pop, Dram phoned to say Eilis was limping. It didn’t look like anything was wrong with her foot, she wasn’t complaining of pain, but she was definitely limping. I told them to call me on Tuesday and let me know how she was or see if she could remember how it happened. On Tuesday, it seemed a little bit better, but she was still limping, so I called the pediatrician. They told me to wait 24 hours with her on motrin or tylenol, and call back if I felt like she needed an x-ray. The thing is, she wasn’t really in any pain.
So, Dram took care of her, had her soaking her foot in that age old only for old people tonic – epson salts and water – and on Wednesday, she really didn’t notice much limping. On with the week.
I picked her up on Friday, and I didn’t notice it right away, but she still had a slight limp. It seemed to vanish through the day, and we went out to dinner with Nanny as a special treat for Eilis getting a good report from her teachers this week at the parent/teacher conference. When we got home, Jim had a bunch of prizes unwrapped for his 12 days of Christmas give away, and he gave Eilis the bubble wrap. She proceeded to jump all over it, bouncing like a Tigger on speed, paying no mind at all to the injured foot.
Now it’s Saturday. Of course, Eilis sleeps until 11, so when she finally gets up and I notice she is REALLY limping, the peds office is getting ready to close for the day. They tell me I can keep her pinned down until Monday, when I can run over there, pick up a prescription for an X-Ray, and then they’ll take it from there, or I can risk waiting 4 hours and take her to the ER. Knowing that the ER close to my mom is usually not too busy, I head there.
She has a sprained ankle, Dr. Personality tells us after two times on the x-ray table. They try to give her crutches, because they want her to keep her weight off of it a few days so it can heal. That didn’t work, as the crutches were too big for her, and it’s so hard to teach crutches to a little kid. They wrapped her like a Christmas present in an ace bandage and sent her home, loaded down with stickers, lollipops, coloring books and crayons. She wants her next birthday party there 😉
I pray every night when I go to sleep that I never have to take my children to the hospital. And I pray that if I do, make it a one time thing, not too serious, something we can deal with. Eilis used her one time up today. I guess that means I have to pray a little harder for her from now on.