Broken Bones

When someone asks, "What'd you do on vacation?" possible answers include which of the following:

1. Broke a toe
2. Broke an arm
3. Had an operation and spent lots of time in the hospital 
4. Reconnected with extended family
5. All of the above

Mark us down for E.

Our family reunion trip to Door County was a little more eventful than we would've liked. The first day we arrived in beautiful Ephraim, Gracie broke her arm. She was turning a cartwheel on the grass (cartwheeling having replaced walking as her usual mode of non-vehicular transportation), slipped and landed on her arm in a rather horrible way. I won't go into the gory details, but the break required an ambulance ride, immediate four-hour surgery and daily return trips to the hospital for IV antibiotics once she was released a day later. All this for my child who has a well-established history of hypochondriasis, which is a fancy way of saying Big Fears About Medical Stuff. But she did great! (Gracie's management of her anxiety was a silver lining of the accident, because it showed her she has more control over anxiety symptoms than she thought.)

And you may wonder, how did I fare? I, who have watched Ethan get his face stitched up at close range, not once but twice? I, who have witnessed two of my nephews being born? I, who once starred in a video about bloodborne pathogens and needlestick injury (requiring me to get blood drawn on camera about a million times because the lighting wasn't quite right)? I fared... not good!

Maybe there's something about Ethan's bloodied face that just doesn't bother me, but more likely it was Gracie's emotional suffering, more than her physical pain, that got to me when she broke her arm and caused me to fare not good. I didn't pass out -- by the skin of my teeth! I'm pretty sure my blood pressure dropped about 60 points or decibels or whatever blood pressure is measured in, because as I was sitting there on the grass reassuring Gracie, I suddenly felt the telltale clammy skin and dizziness kick in. Then the tunnel vision started coming on, and I realized I needed to leave the scene immediately or things were only going to get scarier for Gracie. (Mom passing out on your face while you're waiting for an ambulance does not inspire confidence). I stepped out of sight and shoved my head between my knees, as my sister-in-law kindly held a cold towel to my neck.

And who stepped up to the plate and helped Gracie stay calm? Randy! Randy, who had to lie down in the hospital delivery room after he cut Ethan's umbilical cord (he said he got queasy because it was like "cutting through tough meat"). Randy, who almost passed out after he broke his leg playing soccer. (Not when he actually broke it, but the next day when he went to the doctor for an x-ray and found out that he broke it.) Randy, who had to lie down on the table in the vet's office when our wiener dog, Nikki, had blood drawn from her tiny paw. Randy was amazing! I can never give him crap about having a "delicate constitution" again, because even after I stopped almost-passing out, I was a useless, nauseated ball of stress for a full day in the hospital and he handled the whole situation incredibly well.

At least, for someone with a delicate constitution :-)

And the broken toe? To add insult injury to injury, when Gracie screamed as she broke her arm, Randy went running over to her and caught his pinky toe on a patio brick. I don't even think it even dawned on him that he had broken his toe until we were sitting in the emergency room with Gracie and he got up to walk. By the time we got home that poor little appendage had turned into a black and blue Jabba-the-Hut-looking monstrosity, and Randy reluctantly had to stop running, biking and playing soccer for a several weeks. We figure he and Gracie broke their respective bones within five seconds of each other. Impressive, if nothing else!

As I mentioned earlier, our vacation was all about seeing extended family. I am happy to report that despite the medical excitement, we managed to reconnect with family members whom we adore and don't see nearly often enough. They were even a little bit helpful when Gracie fell! (Full disclosure: Randy's brother Jeff is a doctor. In case I made it sound like Randy and I were actually doing anything useful like looking at Gracie's broken arm or calling an ambulance... No, not so much. We were more like stressed out, lightheaded bystanders, more likely to require additional medical care than be of use. Jeff did everything.) And then there was watching over our other kids while we stayed at the hospital. It may not sound like much, but Mira on vacation is like ten normal Miras, so it took the proverbial village.

Here are some pictures.