Kenzie vs. the Monkey Bars

During the middle of my second block class last Thursday I received a call from the nurse at Challenger.  This is never good.

"Kurt," Mrs. Jone, the nurse said, "Kenzie fell off the monkey bars on the playground.  She says her arms hurts. It's swollen and turning green."

And with that I was off to Challenger.

Two things were running through my mind: First, I had to get Kenzie to the emergency room.  Second, did I have her insurance card?

While waiting at the round about, I flipped through my wallet: no insurance cards.

So I quick dialed my wife's phone.  And wouldn't you know it, she didn't answer.

Not that she was ignoring me, I had forgotten that she had to go look at a property for her insurance company, and she was in a dead spot for cell phone reception.

Without thinking much about it, I rattled off a message: "Honey, I'm taking Kenzie to the emergency room. I don't have her insurance card. Call me back."

I figured that would suffice and focused on picking up Kenzie.

(Side note - I didn't think at all about the shock my poor wife would endure when she heard my actual message!  I somehow thought she would automatically know that she fell off the monkey bars and that  was why I was rushing her to the ER)

What I love about Challenger is that I know so many of my colleagues out there that I feel like they are always looking out for us, so as soon as I walked through the doors all the secretaries smiled and said, "Daddy's here Kenzie."

I walked into the nurse's office and saw poor Kenz with her jacket still on, an ice bag on top of her forearm and the wood chips still clinging to her coat from when she tumbled off the monkey bars.

I scooped her up and carried her to my car while the nurse brought her back pack.

And we were off to the new Sanford hospital to the ER.

It didn't take long for the doctor to see us and order some X rays.

At first everything seemed fine.  I breathed a sigh of relief that it her wrist was just bruised.  However, when we were brought back for a second round of X-rays and she had to rotate her wrist, I knew something was wrong.  That's when Kenz began to howl in pain.  That's when I knew we had a break.

So we returned to the ER room to wait while the nurse fetched a splint.

To take her mind off of her pain and panic, we played I-Spy.  Then when I got tired of that, I tried to peak into her ears and nostril with the ear, nose, and throat inspector device that all doctor rooms have (you know those one that has a long cylinder and with an arrow type top pointing out.  The doctor always puts a plastic cone on the end and it lights up so he or she can examine you).  But Kenz was having none of it.

"Dad," she said. "You can't touch that stuff!"

"Why not?" I said. "There's no one else in here.  I just want to see what's up your nose. Come on!"

By this time I had already taken it off the wall and was trying to take a peek at Kenzie.

"Dad," she said inching away from me.  "You're not a doctor!"

"True," I said, waiting for her to settle down, "but I play one on TV."

She was not impressed.

I had to put the device away.

Nor would she let me check her blood pressure or test her reflexes with the little hammer I found in one of the drawers.

Poor Kenz was about mortified when I began snooping around.

"Daaddd!"

"Well, if they're going to leave me in here this long, I'm going to look around. I always wanted to do this when I was in your spot when I was young.  I just was too scared."

Finally, the nurse came back and put Kenzie's wrist in a splint.

I knew it was going to be fine, for as soon as the splint was tightened, Kenzie's pain went away.

Disaster was averted.  And just in the nick of time too as Halloween was the following day.

As we were about to leave, Kenz seemed sad.

"What's wrong, babe?"

"Dad, I hurt my right arm," she said.  "That means I can't write or draw."

My girl!!! I thought and gave her a hug.

Ha ha.  What a sweetheart.  Then I had to tell her about Casey, when he was in first or second grade, tried to convince Kristie that he had an allergy to paper and couldn't write anything.

And here was Kenze all bummed out that she couldn't write in kindergarten.  At least for a few weeks.

And now today, she visited Dr. Ballard and he and his nurse, Mary, took excellent care of her and got her a blue cast.  She should have it off in three weeks.

Now we just have to get a Prowler paw to go on there and find a silver sharpie so her classmates' can sign their names!