PJ's Big Break

Yep, it was going to happen eventually. It was just a matter of time and method and no it was not Mr White in the Library with the Candle Stick...

..no, he really made his big break in spectacular form fracturing his radius and ulna just centimetres from his wrist.

'How did he do it' I hear you ask?

On a hot afternoon when it was decided that sleep was the best strategy to get through to dinner Peter was too restless to stay in bed like his siblings and mother. Instead, he decided to productive and hang his clothes in the wardrobe in the place where we were being accommodated. He started with shorts, which are no mean feat to get to stay on a hanger and hung it gently. He then added a couple of t-shirts and a pair of underwear, yes, on its own hanger. We are not sure what was next because a few garments fell when in his process of stepping into the wardrobe to reach the hanging rail he overbalanced the wardrobe and it fell upon him with the doors slamming shut as it fell.

Of course, something like that goes down with a 'thud' and I was awoken and promptly got up calling for the boys to stay in their beds as I made my way to their room. (Think big pregnant waddle to their room). Instantly, Karl jumped out and called back, "Mum, Peter can't, the wardrobe is on top of him."

Sending Karl immediately for help I somehow managed with two attempts to get the wardrobe sufficiently off Peter that he could clamber out. Only to have him tell me that, "my hand doesn't work," whilst at the same time clasping his other hand around the site of the fracture and squeezing. Can you cringe with me at the thought - I'll never forget it.

Well, it was all on: ambulance, then the Emergency Department at Bowral Hospital, then Surgery on the third floor followed by an overnight stay with Mum in the Kids Ward on the second floor. Every person along the way commented on the fact that he 'coped' so well and was not upset. He only cried twice, once whilst I was getting frustrated on the phone with the non-medically trained, computer prompted Ambulance Response on 000 because he really needed my attention and reassurance that we would get his hand fixed and then in the 15 minutes before surgery not because the pain relief had worn off but because he was not allowed to have a drink of water and with the heat of the afternoon he was thirsty. (No doubt more about this lack-of-pain issue later).

Morning came, I was very tired but was greeted by a chatty active child who quickly mastered the dismount and climb onto the hospital bed with one arm as well as toileting himself. (I guess a boy doesn't always want a Mum escorting him!) He then, after a dose of Panadol and some breakfast, played Snakes and Ladders with Billy and I. Billy, of course, is the teddy bear donated by the Red Cross that he was given during the ambulance ride.

Things were back to normal pretty quick. We were discharged and returned to our lodgings only to have Peter out there running around crazily as before and refusing to wear his sling all day because it meant he couldn't swing his arm as he ran. As a compromise he is having his 'elevation' time overnight as we strung his cast up to a coat hook on the wall.

I am not sure how I am going to manage 6 weeks of cast craziness, especially as we face returning to Kindergarten and having a baby at some stage around the time of the cast removal. But I guess this is life!