The wrist-shot

Yesterday everyone was going different direction. Kaddi went down to Kaneohe to take Meg to her dentist appointment. Jake was playing at a friends house. I was in my happy place, locked away in my office working on my dissertation. Life was simple.

This tranquility was interrupted by a phone call from a neighbour. It seemed Jake had fallen off his rip-stick and really hurt himself. I put down the phone and headed out the door to pick him up. Just as I crossed the street a friend raced up in his car with Jake in the back. He informed me that it looked like Jake had broken his wrist. In the middle of the street two dads tried to decide what to do. We decided to see if the student clinic would take him.

They wouldn't. We have Kaiser health care, which doesn't have a contract with the BYUH clinic. They informed us we'd have to go down to Moana Lua valley or over to Mililani. Both would involved an hour drive, and since it was now rush hour we were looking at ninety minutes. That's a long time for a boy with a broken wrist. Once again I thought back fondly on my youth filled with hockey, snowball fights, and socialized medicine.

We decided to take him to the Kahuku hospital emergency room, which was only ten minutes away. They don't have a contract with Kaiser, but it was the only real option. They admitted him and gave him some medicine for the pain, then x-rayed his arm. The doctor informed us it was a clean break of the radius above the growth plate. Pretty soon we had Jake on a morphine drip, and he was feeling groovy.



I knew I had to give Kaddi a call, but didn't have a cel phone. Finally I was able to borrow a cel phone from a friend, but neither Jake nor I could remember our home phone number (It changed a month ago). Finally, I got a hold of Kaddi on her cel phone and she came down to the hospital. I was so proud of Jake. I knew how painful it must have been for him, but he fought back the tears while riding to the hospital with his friends in the car. Even when it was just him and I he still kept a brave face. But when Kaddi finally arrived the flood gates opened. It was like a teary kablaamo. Something about having your mom around...

So now he's home and will miss a week of school. He has a splint now for a few days until the swelling goes down. He spends a lot of time on the couch watching Disney channel with a bag of peas on his wrist. On Thursday he'll get his cast, which I hear they make in different colours now. And I guess the ripstick will go into the closet.

(Editor's Note: Two days before this happened we were at a softball game where Meg fell out of a tree and landed on her back. The only thing hurt was her pride - proving once again, that the world belongs to Meg.)