Hey guys!
Well I had a very interesting afternoon today, so I thought I'd share it with you, as it's not exactly something that happens every day (thank goodness). Right about 3 o'clock as we were dismissing one of my boys was running back to his seat and another of the boys tripped him (trying to be funny--they're friends). Well I hear this THUD, and then I hear Jacob half yell, half groan "Ahhhhh!! Miss Ford!!!" and I come around my desk to see him lying on the floor with his arm broken halfway between his elbow and wrist--both bones snapped and it's bent backwards with the bone pushing against the skin (thankfully it didn't actually break the skin). I just stood there for a split second thinking "Oh LORD" before running over, helping him stand up and rushing him out the door while telling the kids to get out of the doorway, stay in the class, and to tell Mr. Massengill to dismiss them. I just wrapped one arm around him to keep his upper arm against his side, while he was sort of holding it up at the elbow with his other hand, and propelled him to the office as fast as I could. The closer I got to the office though the more kids were on the sidewalk so I had to yell at them to get out of the way (they moved quite rapidly once they saw his arm). We got into the office and I sat him down in Mr. B's chair in his little office, then Johnson showed up (our accountant) and went to get his car to take us to the hospital. We passed his older brother on the way out the door (amongst the many high school students gawking at us as we passed) so he was going to tell their mom when she showed up that we'd taken him to the hospital, and we left--Johnson driving like a race car driver with his blinkers going and just laying on the horn. There were tons of kids along the road because school just got out. Cars, kids, dogs, taxis--it was crazy and I thought for sure we were going to get in an accident, and it was jarring Jacob's arm so he was in a lot of pain. I was trying to hold his arm as steady as I could but with Johnson swinging around all the cars and people, driving in the left lane half the time, it was really hard. We stopped at Jacob's regular doctor's office first--though we weren't sure if he could do anything, which he couldn't we found out. He just splinted it with a paper towel roll and ace bandage (good huh??) so it wouldn't flop around any more and then we headed to the hospital. We got there and went straight into the x-ray room, though we had to wait a bit for them to actually do the x-rays, then they started an IV since they had to put him under to set the arm back in place. His mom got there before the x-rays. I just stood there holding his arm for him as good as we possibly could, but he was in so much pain. Poor kid. While they were taking the x-rays he had to bend over with his arm at a painful angle to get it flat on the table so I squatted down on the floor so that he could sit on my leg and not have to try and hold himself and his arm up. They finally took him in and put him under (they had to wait until 4 because he'd eaten at 11 and you have to make sure it's been 5 or 6 hours so they don't throw up), and then Johnson and I left him with his mom. I'm going to call later tonight and check on him, but he has to stay at the hospital overnight so they can make sure it's all going to be ok and to make sure his hand has full circulation since the fracture pretty much cut it off and his hand was turning blue. So that was my excitement for the day! Pretty crazy. All the other teachers that saw us as we went by were like "That was so gross!!! How could you stand looking at it!?" But you know, it didn't really bother me. I mean it was a BAD break, but it wasn't bleeding, and though it hurt me that he was in so much pain, it didn't make me sick or anything. Kind of makes me more sure that I want to do this whole nursing thing though! So I guess that's good.
Well other than that things are going along at the normal pace here. We have report cards/parent/teacher conferences this Friday in the morning, and then we're going camping for the weekend. So we get a shortened week AND we get to go camping! Works for me. I think we're going to a new island too, so I'm not sure what it's going to be like. We all would like to get back to Ant, but I don't know if it'll happen. Any little island out in the tropical ocean will do! I'm not complaining.
Well I thought I'd share my day with you guys and ask you to please keep Jacob in your prayers. Miss you all.
love,
Lindsey
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