…”Roll over, roll over.” So they all rolled over and one rolled out – yup, we’re nursery rhymes come to life in this house.
I’ve been too busy to blog, darlings, who’d have thought it? Weeza had laryngitis and so i suggested having Gus to stay on Thursday night. Her day off is Friday and, with little or no voice and feeling rough, I thought it would be good for her to have a break. And we had a lovely day. We fed the chickens and cleaned the kitchen and did the washing and pegged it on the line and we picked flowers and leaves for Edweena and the tots and we watered the greenhouse and we went to the bank for Grandpa and we went to the bakery and the sweetshop and … oh, I can’t remember what else we did, but it was a busy morning. Oh yes, we went down to the store down the road where they sell Everything, including pets and we looked at the animals and fish and bought some treats for Ben, and we walked Ben and we had pizza for lunch.
Then we went off to Wroxhamam Barns, with Grandpa, to play on the swings for a bit (Grandpa stayed in the shade and had an icecream) and Weeza and Zerlina came to join us, and we had Tea And Cake. Then the children came with us. I left Grandpa at home and took z and Gus to H@lesworth to our vocational centre, where they had a good look round (it was their open evening), tried their hand at bricklaying and motor engineering, were entertained in the hairdressing salon and catering department, then we came home via the Co-op, where I bought them some cold meat, cheese and salad for supper.
This was all great. Next, it started to fall apart.
I arrived home and the children got out of the car and Gus went over to say hello to Ben, who was in the annexe garden. I thought Ben was showing him his teddy bear and took z over too … Ben was proudly exhibiting a baby rabbit he had killed. Fortunately, they are country children and weren’t horrified, but all the same I brought them indoors hastily. I told R, who said he’d go and deal with it.
I put the children’s supper out for them and they were eating, when R appeared at the back door. Could I look after Ben while he found the rabbit? Well, not very well. Ben was so over-excited that the children were nervous, and while I was trying to manage him, I heard a sound in the garden, looked out, Ben escaped and I found R on the grass where he’d fallen over, clutching this bunny, which Ben promptly grabbed. I marched after him and he stopped, but he wouldn’t give up the damn rabbit. Not willingly. I gave him a piece of my mind. We vied for the rabbit, which wasn’t very good, but I won. R was okay, a bit shaken.
I left him resting, the dog in the garden, the rabbit in a bag in the bin, and took the children for a bath, then bed. Ironically, Zerlina had brought her favourite book, The Tale Of Peter Rabbit. She read it to me, I kissed them goodnight and they went to sleep.
The falling apart continued an hour later, when Gus fell out of bed. I heard it and ran upstairs and picked him up – I thought he was okay, though he was screaming with distress. I’d put a bottle of water for him on a little table next to the bed and it was overturned. It took some time to settle him, but he seemed to fall asleep – not for long, he cried again and I comforted him. Meanwhile, Weeza had texted to say they’d had a lovely, relaxing evening at the village pub – I told her what had happened, but was quite reassuring, because he’d gone to sleep.
It all started again at 12.30 on Saturday morning. I’d only just gone to sleep – I’d last looked at the time at 12.15 – when Gus cried, in great distress. He was clearly in pain. I put the light on but couldn’t see anything wrong. Russell offered to move into another room so that Gus could come in bed with me and I accepted – Gus was more comfortable fairly upright in my arms. But after a while, he asked for his cuddly puppy, so I put him down in a nest of pillows and went for Puppy, bringing more pillows back with me.
I finally slept around 3.30 for a couple of hours, when Gus half-woke again, waving his arms and legs again in his sleep, clearly in pain. This went on for an hour, until he slept soundly again, and so did I for an hour or so. When he woke, I helped him out of bed and he stood, wincing. He was very brave when I took off his pyjama top (thank goodness it wasn’t a t shirt, that would have hurt even more) but tears sprang into his eyes and he winced again. I looked and decided that the two shoulders didn’t quite match, and that hospital was the place to go. So it was arranged that Weeza and Phil would meet us there in separate cars, and that Phil would then take Zerlina to her party and Weeza and I would look after Gus.
The Norfolk and Norwich is a truly good hospital, they were great in A&E. The whole thing took a couple of hours – it was all right that I hadn’t taken him during the night, it wouldn’t have made any difference and the conditions wouldn’t have been great (early hours of Saturday morning) for a distressed little boy. He was given Calpol (a child’s analgesic) – I’d given him nothing, in case he had to have an anaesthetic, and I hadn’t given him anything to eat for the same reason. In the night, he’d been able to speak coherently, didn’t show signs of shock, wasn’t bleeding, drank water and wasn’t sick, so I’d judged it not an emergency. In fact, if I’d said “pfft. he’ll be fine,” it would have been ok, because the x-ray showed a broken collar bone, but it hadn’t shifted and they said it was best to leave it to heal.
Gus was fine while we were waiting, but terribly upset when we took his shirt off so that I could show the doctor where his two shoulders were asymmetrical. He bawled when taken for his x-ray and it was a wonder that it came out clearly. He stopped crying the moment his shirt was on again. We came out, to wait to see the doctor again, and a young man was just bringing his companions coffee and buns, while they waited. “Ooh, lovely,” we said, and he had a tube of Smarties – “we must get some of them for Gus.” The young man insisted we took his Smarties. He wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and we had to give in. Gus tucked into them and was cheerful in minutes – half his problem was sheer emptiness and low blood sugar. What a lovely man – he made us feel as if we were taking unwanted sweets off his hands.
Every single person in the hospital was lovely. We were there for a couple of hours, but they were busy and we didn’t feel we were kept waiting long at any time. We were exhausted by the end – at least Weeza had had some breakfast, I hadn’t and, by 1 o’clock, I could hardly speak coherently. Fortunately, I had some wine gums in the car, and ate a few before I drove. I didn’t think I was quite safe, otherwise. We drove to Tesco’s (sorry, but we did – it was convenient, we both needed diesel for our cars and Gus and I needed food and drink). I went to buy a cheese toastie for me and mini mufffins for Gus, tea for Weeza, black coffee for me and orange juice for Gus, while Weeza went to buy some shirts – he mostly has t-shirts, which he won’t be able to wear for a while. We all sat and rested for a bit.
Since getting home, I’ve caught up with the chores and helped R with some admin. I cooked omelettes for supper, but I caught him feeding more than half of his to Ben. I wish he’d just leave it – if he can’t eat, that’s not his fault, but the dog is so fat I can’t feel his ribs any more, and I need to know whether R is able to eat or not. I’ve explained that again.
Life isn’t getting easier at the Zeddery. However, Weeza, Phil and Gus are coming over again tomorrow to pick up some things that R has been storing for them (they are having their great-grandfather’s Cambridge oar, for instance – it’s of no consequence to me, as it comes from the Other Place), whilst Zerlina is on a play date. I’m not doing a lot for lunch: sausages, salad, ice cream, strawberries and meringues.
Weeza bought me flowers. It was I who broke her son’s collar bone, I feel I should be comforting her.
Ay Caramba !
You did not brake his collar bone, Z – he had an unfortunate fall.
Speaking of fall, luck that R was only shaken when he fell in the garden, and nothing worse happened to him.
Gus’ bones will heal fast, he will feel it for some time, but he’ll recover fully. He’ll wear his shirts with bravura.
Good point Mago.
It seems that lots of children break their collar bones falling out of bed in their sleep. I had no idea bed was so hazardous for little ones!
He slept well last night and they’re keeping him tanked up on analgesics. They’re here for lunch now, all is fine.
Hey Z! The poor mite! I managed to get through childhood without breaking any bones, tho I have no idea how I managed it. I hope he mends quickly. Indigo x
I’ve broken my own bones. I have broken my children’s bones—rather found them with broken bones and on at least one occasion failed to get them to a hospital right away because they “looked okay.” So far my grandchildren’s bones have been safe.
I think that A&E is what the NHS does best. My brother tells me that the one at Worcester dealt very swiftly with my nephew’s broken arm recently, and I had no complaints at all about our local A&E when I took Sir Bruin there a few weeks ago. Sir B and I arrived at A&E at about 2 am on a Sunday morning and it was all surprisingly calm.
When my youngest brother broke his collar bone, he was about three-and-a-half. He did his falling off a bed, but it was my mum’s bed and he had been bouncing up and down on it. I remember that the hospital strapped him up around his shoulders, presumably to keep the bone straight. The strapping meant that if he fell over he couldn’t get back up again unaided poor chap!
I hope young Gus mends quickly.
I’ve never broken any bones, and the only operation I ever had, before my hip replacement, was to take a polyp off my vocal cords – I’ve always missed that husky voice since. When my son had a broken leg, I assured him he’d be fine if he hopped around on it a bit – whoops.
I spent a lot of time in A&E in the old N&N hospital, because my mother’s hip dislocated seven times. This one is a lot better, more roomy, plenty of car parking, a lovely children’s area, more comfortable overall.