A thing that is infinitely scary

So yesterday Damm and I were ordering our lunch (the bestest burritos ever that I must have everyday) and talking about how he left his cell phone in his ROTC lounge. Two seconds later his phone calls mine, I give it to him, and order my bean&cheese&rice&lettuce&tomato burrito on a freshly made tortilla. He orders as well but looks distracted. He didn't recognize the voice on the phone and, unbeknownst to me, the voice on the phone had told him that he needed to call his mother as she was on her way to the emergency room. He had thought it was a prank call and rather angrily hung up on the dude.

One minute later my phone rings again. It's his mom. A long conversation ensued that sounded serious. I start to get worried-I had let him answer and thus could not hear what was going on. "ER" was flashed around though so I start to get a panicky feeling and start asking if the Orclette is ok. Damm finally hangs up and tells me that they think she has a dislocated shoulder.

Chest tightening. Panic setting in. Immense anger at those who did this to my child*. Eyes starting to tear up. Imaginings of that sweet little face in pain.

I pulled myself together and we were off. We got to the Urgent Care Clinic, not ER, about two minutes after his parents. The Orclette is being held by her grandmother and she is quiet and subdued. This does quite a bit towards calming me (I have no idea what Damm was thinking. I didn't ask). We know think that she's done something to her wrist as she won't use her left arm at all but it didn't look like a dislocated shoulder or a break. We wait. And wait and wait. And wait some more.

Finally we're seen by the doctor. We started the explanations but she shook her head, said that it was nursemaid's elbow, and that she could set it right in a jiffy. I think I fell in love with her (it's horrible not knowing exactly what's wrong). She did indeed fix it, the Orclette screamed, but immediately afterward she started to use that arm again and stopped telling us that it "hurts." We stuck around for some x-rays, just to make sure, and then we ventured out of the Urgent Care center.

At this point I was calm and lucid enough to tell the Orclette's grandmother* (I wish I could say I hadn't included the grandparents in my anger but they were there-fortunately I knew better than to say ANYTHING until I had cooled off) that I didn't blame her, that it could've happened to any one of us (which is true). I also told her I wasn't mad (which at that point was true). You see, what had happened was that it was nap time. So grandma was helping Orclette onto the bed by her arms. Once she was up she told Audrey that it "hurts" and wouldn't use the left arm. Having had four boys who were incredibly prone to injuring themselves she recognized trouble signs and immediately started to call us. Couldn't get through to our phones until they were on there way. No idea what the problem with my phone is. Both she and Larry were visibly shaken, more so than us since it had happened on their turf, and so there was much bolstering of spirits to be done.

I spent the rest of the afternoon with Orclette and skipped classes. Not because I didn't want her to go back to the grandparents, although thinking back I hope they didn't think that because I have no qualms leaving her with them, but because I needed to hold her. We had a fairly pleasant evening. She conked out about 6 p.m.

And so the Orclette is fine. I don't think she'll even remember her little misadventure. Tonight we fly to Houston to see my parents and my granparents for Easter (woot!).

I just really never want to hear that any child of mine is in the ER again. It was perhaps that scariest thing that has ever happened to me. And Damm. (poor Damm-I was only thinking of the Orclette and getting to her and thus almost completely ignored him)