My poor Dynamic Daughter. It has been a rough week and a half for her. Last Monday the teens went off to school and I stayed at home taking it easy. At about 11am I get a phone call from the school advising me the Dynamic Daughter had had an accident in gymnastics. She had landed awkwardly on her back and was in distress. They had called an ambulance and I was not to worry. It was just a precaution. Great! She probably winded herself and panicked. Fantastic, I will have to go the school and collect her when the ambos decide she is OK, caring mother that I am. When I got to the school the Dynamic Daughter was being loaded into the back of the ambulance and was blissfully medicated to the eyeballs. OK, maybe she really did hurt herself.
At the hospital she was admitted to the A & E Dept and we waited. The staff were very attentive and efficient. A tall, tattooed young man who was there with his mate, came up to my girl and asked if she was OK. She explained her accident and he explained that his mate had been king hit and had collapsed and burst his eardrum. Wow. Nasty. I later heard him advise his mate that he "might have a brain bleed and might die!". I think that was supposed to be comforting....or mateship.... or something.
I had to go home for my usual afternoon rest and so I called the Ol' Cheeses (my parents) who live near the hospital and they came and sat with her. The
Dynamic Daughter was relaxed so I felt alright leaving her for a couple of hours. When I returned she was lying very still and pale. She had apparently been released but fainted twice just outside the hospital. The Ol' Cheese (mum) was with her and holding her hand. A doctor came and told me that she had fractured a vertebra and was never to do contact sports or sports involving hard surfaces again. What the? I felt faint myself and had to put my head down between my knees and then the Ol' Cheese had what she calls a hypo (she is a diabetic) and so the nurse was giving her apple juice, me a cold water and the Dynamic Daughter a sandwich. She hit the trifecta with this family. Poor child most certainly did not just wind herself.
Her spinal injury, which has since been upgraded to 3 - 4 fractured vertebrae, will take about two months to heal. There is some other issue with her spine which we will find out about at tomorrow's doctor's appointment and this is the reason for no more sport apparently. The Dynamic Daughter was on some serious pain relief for the first week but has since downgraded to paracetamol. She has not been to school since except for a half day stint yesterday which was something she insisted on doing. Sitting up is the hardest thing on her and so she will have to have some patience. My Dynamic Daughter is a little despondent at her predicament. She had discovered basketball and soccer this last year and worries about missing too much school.
The very nice thing to come out of this is the number of students and teachers who have enquired about her either on Facebook, MSN, texting or, that old but reliable method, the phone call. The concern has been huge and she feels very loved.
My underestimation of my children's' injuries continues. I have been known to ignore broken bones for 24 hours, thinking the limb was just bruised. Will I ever learn? Oh well, you can't say that my children are kept in cotton wool I suppose.
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