The movers arrived an hour late on Tuesday, 8 May.  I thought this was a bad omen.  I wasn't thrilled.  Really?  Late the first day? I can't stand it when people are late.   However after they arrived and got straight to work and didn't take a smoke break after 10 minutes I was beginning to forgive them.  (I'm not sure why/how anyone would forget their ID Card when coming onto a military instillation, but whateve's) After they worked for an HOUR NONSTOP I was really starting to like these ladies.  I loved the fact that they were all LADIES doing my pack out, and they were good at it.  They weren't just tossing my household goods in a box taping it up and marking it 'shoes' when it was really kitchen plates.  They actually LABELED everything that was in the box....This isn't a great picture, but you can see all the writing on the boxes:
The EXACT moment the packers won me over was when I ask them if I could pack my own shoes.  Our conversation went something like this:
Me:  I would like to pack my own shoes, do you guys mind if I grab a box and paper?
Movers: (looking at me like I am nuts) Sure we will fix a box up for you, but just so you know, we wrap EACH SHOE INDIVIDUALLY and place them in the box.
Me: YOU DO WHAT?!?! 
Movers: we wrap EACH SHOE INDIVIDUALLY and place them in the box.
Me: You are kidding me?  You are not serious...?
Movers: Really, that is how we pack shoes.
Me: OK, you can pack my shoes.

OK, I'm in LOVE.  Rocky's Moving and Storage, why can't all moving companies be like you?

Day 2 of the pack out was even better when one of the ladies ask me: "is there anything else you want me to put in
this box? I really don't like to mix boxes."  

I MUST be in the Twilight Zone.

By the end of Day 2 all of our household goods going to Korea were boxed and ready for the movers the next day. 

It was about 6PM in the afternoon, Hubby went to play golf.  I had just poured myself a little 'after the movers leave' cocktail, I had the remote control to the DVR in hand and was about to sit down to watch Private Practice when my neighbors daughter Kenzie came bursting in my house yelling "Mrs Trish, Mrs Trish, YOU NEED TO GET TO THE ER NOW!!  HURRY!!" and she ran back to her house yelling for me to follow her  - What the what, what?  

You see, Boys 2 & 3 were playing at the neighbor's house.  As I was running towards the neighbor's house I was expecting to hear screaming, but I didn't and in the few seconds it took me to get there I thought that Kenzie must have been exaggerating.  There was no yelling and I was seeing no signs of blood.  As I am trying to catch up with her (and with 1000 thoughts swirling through my head) I heard her say it was Boy 3.  He was hurt.  But I was confused.  There was no screaming, crying or sounds of any kind.  That is when I saw my neighbor Kayla with phone in hand leaning over Boy 3 (he was on her couch) asking me if I thought she should call 911.  My first reaction was 'why' - he was lying calmly on her couch, not even crying, but coddling his arm.  When he saw me, the tears started, he moved his hand that was covering his arm and that is when I almost vomited right then and there and said (not very calmly) YES, CALL 911!  I went into a mini panic. I sat beside him while Kayla called 911.  She ask for an ambulance, things were taking too long for me...I ask Kayla if they were sending an ambulance, she shrugged her shoulders and continued answering the questions the dispatcher was asking her.  Again, in my small state of panic the 10 seconds Kayla was on the phone seemed like 10 minutes so I ask her again if the ambulance was coming she shrugged once again and mouthed 'I don't know'. That is when Momma Bear went into growl mode and said 'GIVE ME THE PHONE.'  I took the phone out of her hand and ask in a not very nice way "is an ambulance coming or do I need to put him in the car and drive him to the ER?!?!"  That is when the very nice dispatcher said 'Yes, the ambulance is on the way, I just need to ask a few more questions' - I said thank you - again not very nicely and gave her back to my friend.  Grrrr..... Why couldn't she just tell us the ambulance was on the way before asking a million more questions?

While waiting for the ambulance I collected myself, called Hubby, told Boy 1 he was in charge, let him know where Girl was and grabbed my purse.

It took the ambulance a little longer than it should have because our street is not in any GPS system.  To me, this seems like a problem that should have already been fixed (especially for EMS) since our street is now 4 years old, but I'm not in charge of that.....

The whole time Boy 3 was pretty calm.  He wasn't freaking out crying, screaming or anything.  In fact he was so calm it freaked me out a little. When I ask him what happened he said, "I fell off the slide (a little tykes slide mind you) and Boy 2 fell on top of me and then I heard my bone crack."  
 
A little while later as he was lying on the couch still waiting for the ambulance he asks - "Mom, are you going to take a picture now?"   I just love that kid!  :o)

Upon arrival to the ER at Darnell they immediately gave Boy 3 morphine.  I ask if they had some for me, but I think they thought I was joking.  I wasn't.

See that big lump on his arm?  That is his bone sticking up.  No joke.  Compound fracture.  Thank GOD it didn't break through the skin.
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Post morphine. He knew that his bone was broken and was telling everyone that he heard it crack.
Before they gave him the morphine, they ask him what his pain level was and showed him the chart.  He told them a 10. While I was talking to him I ask him again about his pain level and explained that a 10 is the worst pain ever and that at a 10 most people are crying.  I ask him if his pain was that bad - he said yes - but he had no tears, at all.  Since I am SO in touch with my feelings (some call it 'emotional basket case', but they are just mean) this didn't sit well with me, so I told him that it was OK to cry if he was in that much pain.  He told me he could cry, but he didn't want to annoy people.  MY HEART BROKE.  I told him to annoy away...this is a time that it was perfectly fine to annoy people.  That is when he said, "Mom, I didn't do my random act of kindness today, so this is my random act of kindness.  I'm not going to cry so I don't annoy people." 

How freaking precious is that?
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I thought it was cool that they brought the x-ray machine to him. Look at that lump on his arm....my stomach is churning just looking at it.
Finally after about 4 hours in Darnell, they decided to send him to Dell Children's Hospital in Austin.  At this point I hopped in the car and headed home to grab a few things as I knew we were in it for the long haul now.  When I got home, I started throwing things in my bag getting ready to leave - that is when Boy 1 came in freaking out telling me something is wrong with Max (our dog).  OH DEAR GOD....are you kidding me?!?! I don't have time for this!!  Apparently after someone (I won't mention any names here) cleaned the kitchen after dinner they didn't put the trash away....(we had a roasted chicken for dinner) and Max decided to help himself to the garbage.  As he was enjoying a nice chicken bone (yes, I KNOW they are bad for dogs) it got stuck in between his teeth and across the roof of his mouth.  Again...ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I have a kid in the ER and a dog that needs to go to the Vet ER.  OH MY GOSH - where is that drink I poured myself hours ago?  I tried to get the bone out, but couldn't.  I needed to get back to the ER so I could ride in the ambulance it with Boy 3.  CALGON!!  When I got back to the ER I told Hubby about the dog - he headed home to shower and to see what he could do about the dog...

Once we got to Dell Children's Hospital we had to wait again.  They didn't want to do surgery until 12 hours after Boy 3 had eaten dinner.  SO we WAITED some more.  At about 4:30AM they wheeled us into the room he would be in after surgery.  At 5:30AM they took him down to surgery.   Boy 3 needed a pediatric orthopedic surgeon and he needed another type of pediatric surgeon (I can't remember the name...) on stand-by as the main artery that does down the front of the humerus bone had been displaced and if anything went wrong, he needed to be close by.  Boy 3's doc was amazing!  He told us that best case scenario he would be out of surgery in 1 hour.  If he wasn't out in 1 hour he would have someone come talk to us.  He was out in 50 minutes!   

OH, and while he was in surgery we were finally able to get ahold of our moving company and put them on hold for the day.  AND Hubby told me that he was able to get bone out of the dog's mouth. 
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Boy 3 on his way to surgery.
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Moments after surgery - we call that blue thing his big blue lego. He had to wear it for 48 hours after surgery.
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About 24 hours after surgery he took his first walk to check out this AWESOME hospital.
These next pictures were taken about 36 hours after surgery.  This is when we went to explore this amazing hospital.  There were things for kids to do all over!   They had play rooms, where the kids could do anything from art, to video games to build with legos.  There was a butterfly wall, a bat wall and a huge wall that was a ball maze (in the picture above).  The pictures below are in the MIDDLE of the hospital!  They had an atrium with waterfalls and gardens on each floor.  Boy 3 wanted his picture taken on every floor.
As Boy 3 was checking out of the hospital the toy cart came by!  Boy 3 got to pick out a toy and a book to take home!  How fun is that?!
OH, and through it all we did manage to get our stuff on the moving truck - even though the rain held us up for a while. 
Really.  I couldn't make this shit up if I wanted to.

Now, where is that bottle of wine one should always have on hand when PCSing? 
Kelly
5/18/2012 08:32:59 am

I would need more than wine after all that.. Happy travels...

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Dawn
5/18/2012 08:33:39 am

oh Trish, someday you will laugh at this...it might be at Boy 3's college graduation, but you WILL laugh at this someday! Thinking of you friend!!

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Tim
5/18/2012 09:09:48 am

Gotta love it!

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5/18/2012 11:38:38 am

No way. Haven broke his arm 3 weeks ago, but NOTHING like this. Oh my goodness. And the way you wrote it...I could just hear your voice. Poor Trish. Poor Boy 3. Oh my goodness. but what a neat experience after all...very cool hospital indeed. Perhaps he'll grow up to be a pediatric surgeon himself. Many started this way. He sure has the nerves to be a surgeon. I want to give that boy the biggest bear hug ever and tell him he will never ever annoy me no matter what. What a sweetie pie!!!! :) Thanks for sharing and I sure hope you're all in good health and spirits for the move! 3

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5/18/2012 12:30:11 pm

God bless you! I have been sitting here reading this and calling my husband to come hear about it...and then I send him away, and then I call him back to hear the NEXT thing that happened! We were both cringing at the sight of that arm (DH can identify, he had a compound fracture like that a few months before we got married) and both agreed that Boy#3 deserves a medal for being such a brave and considerate guy! Well done, Mama!
Take a few deep breaths...the actual move to Seoul should be a walk in the park in comparison....

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Dana
5/18/2012 01:08:43 pm

Girl, your life could be a tv show.

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Tammy
5/18/2012 01:09:31 pm

WOW!!! Just praising God that your Hubby was home. That is when my head would have been spinning.

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Cara
5/18/2012 08:36:30 pm

You can make the most traumatic things sound so funny, but you made me cry when I read what Boy 3 said about his random act of kindness. What a blessing he is to this world.

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Shayna
5/18/2012 10:49:39 pm

Trish, you are hilarious. Glad things worked out.

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Heidi
5/18/2012 10:50:17 pm

Wow Trish....what a brave boy you have!

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Rachel
5/18/2012 10:53:24 pm

Random acts of kindness are part of your family SOP, I shouldn't be surprised. I had bad dreams last night about little boys with broken arms after looking at your post. It dredged up some awful memories. And right before bedtime Levi was jumping on my bed. EEEEK! I trust that Z is back to his normal happy self. Will he need surgery again to remove the hardware?

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