Snap!

Friday at work, I got a call from someone at Ethan’s school. She said that Ethan was in the office after apparently hurting his arm during recess — maybe a sprained wrist. She asked if Ethan was prone to drama since he had been lying on the floor of the nurse’s station not wanting to even get up onto the bed. “Although,” she continued, “he does look really pale and it’s hard to fake that.”

The school office worker had tried to call Shannon, but the line was busy. I called some neighbors, eventually finding someone home to go knock on our door and have Shannon call me. She made it quickly up to the office, and decided to take him to the doctor.

In the car, Shannon had to tell Afton to go easy on him because Afton was grilling him.

“Ethan, what’s wrong?”

“Ethan are you hurt?”

“Ethan how did it happen?” 

Ethan says that he had been playing football and had a pass thrown to him. While trying to run and catch it, he had a pile-up with a kid on the other team. I’m not sure if pass interference should have been called.

Ethan also said that, while still under the pile, the weird thought crossed his mind that he was going to have to have his arm amputated, and imagined that there would be a funeral service and a headstone that said “Ethan’s Arm”. OK, maybe Ethan can be a little prone to drama. But after a couple of X-rays, it was clear that he wasn’t faking: both the ulna and radius in his right arm were broken, and he needed to go to the ER to get them reset.

At that point it was more important for me to be dad than a JavaScript unit tester, so I left work and joined them at the hospital. Ethan was pretty upset because he was convinced he was going to get a shot. He nervously mumbled to everyone at the hospital that he didn’t want a shot. Shannon promised him a big Lego set if he needed one and took it without freaking out. Hmm… does an IV count as a shot?

I was teasing him that he only broke his arm to get out of his spelling test that day. Or maybe to get out of practicing the piano. However, the fact that it would cause him difficulty playing video games defeated any argument that it could have been intentional. But he didn’t have much of a sense of humor as the hospital staff were explaining what an IV is, because it sure sounded like a shot. His mood changed significantly after they doped him up, reset the bones, and he started coming around again. He had a grin on his face and his prior nervous mumblings became logorrhea, talking long and freely with all the hospital staff.

Overall he’s been doing pretty well. We’re a little worried about Gerrit though. He keeps asking Ethan if he feels special because he has a broken arm. Maybe Gerrit is formulating a way to get some extra attention. Ethan tries to head that off, though. In spite of Legos, the sympathy, and even a plate of brownies from a friend, Ethan says it’s not worth it.