And the rotten mother of the year goes to…me

I have topped all charts for mother guilt here. What sort of mother leaves her 3 year old suffer a broken arm for 4 days? Well –this one.

On Sunday afternoon, whilst I was preparing some afternoon tea, the kids played out on the lawn with Age. Lilly had a long ribbon tied to a stick and was enjoying the beauty of it fluttering in the air. She started to twirl around and around with it; but Adrian told her to slow down and to stay in the middle of the grass as she kept coming close to the fence and the brick edging. Of course she did neither, got dizzy and fell over onto the bricks with a crack. She sported an egg on her head and was slightly concussed. We went though all the tests for a broken limb and although tearful, she seemed to be fine and able to do all the twisting of her wrist and griping motions. We iced her arm, bandaged it and I took her to bed for a cuddle and a calm down; careful not to allow her to go to sleep.

After about half an hour she pepped up and ran outside as good as gold. We went to the park and continued our day. She had a little bruising on her arm that night – but her other arm had been scraped by the bricks – so looked worse.

I kept and eye on her and got her to do all the testing a few times a day. She was a little protective of her arm and less boisterous – but even a bruised arm can hurt a lot. The kicker for me to take her to the doctors was last night. After bathtime – she loves to be swung up in the air by her arms ( I know – a nice calming sedative pastime – just before bed) She raised her arms up to me wanting to be swung up – so I obliged. She screamed for over an hour. Our Miss Lilly is s tough little nugget – so I knew this was serious. We iced and bandaged her up again and made an appointment with our local doctor – no use in trekking out at night to the outpatients to wait there in the cold for hours.

I don’t have a ‘doctor’ – but have visited this new clinic just up the road a few times- they have a skin cancer clinic there – which is a must do every year – especially in our climate. He is very sweet and very thorough and took Lillys arm very seriously. He did all the same tests that I had and asked her where it hurt. She did say it hurt but didn’t cry or seem agitated at all – so he said he wasn’t concerned. He wrote a referral for an x ray and said that if I really felt it was necessary then to go and get it seen to in the next few days.

As I drove out of the carpark, I thought – bugger it – we are out and about – might as well totter down to the nearest xray place to get it looked at… Lilly was so funny getting it done. She asked lots of questions and was very serious about it all –earning her a few stickers. I saw the xray as it came on the screen – and even to my untrained eye I could see the damage.

So back to the surgery we went and was fitted in immediately. Lilly has a hairline fracture on both bones very close to the wrist. The lumpy bit at the end of the bone has a slight chip as well. She sat very still while she was bandaged up. Nothing gets past her! One of the male nurses walked past and she said quietly to me – “Mummy – that man has a lolly in his mouth.” He looked at her in that startled rabbit stare and swallowed the offending sweet. I told him he had been sprung. He grinned and offered Lilly a few of the lollies in the jar beside him.

Back home - she is less enamored with her cast. She has successfully pulled out as much of the wadding that she can get to. I had to leave her for a few moments in the bath to help Morgan and came back to find she had ripped off the very tightly bandaged plastic bag and was merrily dunking her arm in and out of the bath.

On the way to bed she announced she didn’t need it any longer and showed me that she can twinkle her fingers and roll her wrist without it hurting. Sigh.. my Miss Lilly. Our Little Warrior Princess.