Ground-breaking (et al) Event on a Saturday Night

Mason has now accomplished something I never have. Mason broke his left arm.
Last night, Mason's friend came over and they were playing outside. I decided to mow the lawn, trying to beat any rain that we may get later in the evening. It was cool and a bit windy. Our neighor was mowing, as well. As I came around the back of the house making my first pass with the mower, I saw Mason sitting on the back patio crying. "Wow," I thought to myself. "Is Mason in trouble?" I continued around the perimeter of the back yard when Noel came out of the house and motioned for me to come over where she was standing and Mason was sitting.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"I fell off the swing, Daddy," Mason said, still crying.

"Okay, what hurts?"

"My arm."

Given my years of medical training (Hey, I watched ER for like four seasons), I asked if he could move his fingers. He moved his index finger on each hand but was obviously tentative to trying anything else. And, his left arm looked a bit 'funny'. Not 'haha' funny, mind you; more 'funny' odd.

Noel saw the same thing that I did. She said we should take him to the doctor. I agreed and went to get my keys and change out of my especially nasty lawn-mowing shoes (a pair of tennis shoes that I got at Fort Leavenworth in 2001 that I refuse to part with).

I helped Mason into the car and we were on our way to the hospital. I tried to make small talk with Mason. We listened to 'rock star' music (Classic rock on Q95) on the radio ("Daddy, what does 'classic' mean). He had stopped crying before we got in the car and was now just in a fair amount of pain. He took a keen interest in traffic signals; only the red lights, wondering when it would be 'our turn' to go.

We arrived at the ER in short order walked into an empty waiting room. We went immediately to triage. Weight, blood pressure, pulse ox, CBC and chem 7, stat!. Oh wait, more ER the TV show flashbacks. Just weight and BP at this point. Some paperwork for daddy and we were back in an exam room awaiting a doctor or nurse.

At this point, Noel began a steady drip of text messages with questions. I was doing my best to keep her informed as she was very worried. We spoke a couple of times on the phone. We met the nurse, Daphne (who, apparently knows Shaggy, Scooby and he rest of the gang), Brian the EMT and finally, the doctor. We met Barry, the X-ray technologist. Looking at the X-ray it was fairly obvious what was wrong.

It was nearing 10 when we were discharged and still had to hit the pharmacy to fill his prescription. "Don't wait until tomorrow to fill this," the nurse advised. "he will be in a fair amount of pain tonight."

We found a 24-hour CVS and waited for 20 minutes to fill the prescription. CVS, it turns out, was much busier than the ER.

Arriving home at 11pm, Noel was so happy to see Mason. She hugged him gingerly and we went upstairs to change out of the clothes he had been to the hospital in.

So now we were left to figure out what the immediate future would hold. He has an appointment to see the orthopaedic surgeon on Monday morning and soccer season is all but over (I joked that it started and ended this week). School should be interesting. He's right-handed so school shouldn't be a problem, right?

Oh, wait. Did I forget to mention he broke both forearms?
Never a dull moment here at the Huber household.