A Not-So-Welcome Break

Before I left work today I got so tired thinking about coming home to a messed-up and messy, plumbing-plagued house. I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice if I didn't have to go home to that right now."

Be careful what you wish for. 

When Julia got in the car after dance rehearsal, she didn't look her usual bright self. Her mouth was turned down and I could see the streaks that tears had left on her cheeks. Turns out that during a basketball game she had jammed her finger so severely that she was now in a lot of pain, and was also suffering from embarrassment at having screamed so loudly during P.E. class. I tried to get her to straighten out her finger, but nothing doing. She couldn't hold my hand or bend the finger at all, and I thought, "Uh oh. Now what?"

"Now what" meant a trip to urgent care to see a doctor and get a few x-rays. It turns out that she fractured the end of the bone at the middle joint of her ring finger. It's not as bad as a complete bone fracture, but it's still really painful and requires a splint, a bandage, and ice compresses every hour. (It also seems to require the need to drink a can of coke with dinner - somehow the doctor forgot to mention that part to me!)

The splinted and bandaged finger

Actually, considering this is the child who still cannot swallow a pill and who quivers at the thought of taking out her earrings, she did remarkably well throughout the whole thing. The worst part came when the x-ray tech had to try to get her hand as flat as possible to take the pictures. He had to help her spread her fingers as best as she could while stopping her hand from shaking. I could see the strain on her face as she was making a huge effort not to complain. In the end, however, I think she was the most upset when they cut off the identifying bracelet she had to wear in x-ray and in the process cut one of her gel bracelets that her teacher had given her. By the time we got home, though, she had perked up enough to enjoy the special pasta dinner Darryl had made to cheer her up. She also quite liked the fact that I had to wash her hair for her and put the toothpaste on the toothbrush. (Did I really have to do that? I don't know, but it made her feel taken care of.)

Poor me!

And here I was feeling sorry for myself having to deal with the remodel mess at home. Obviously, as you can tell from the photo, Julia does a much better "feel sorry for me" face than I ever could.