Going back to Oct. 6th...

I have to backtrack a little before I get to the vacation stuff...

Wednesday, October 6th the weather dawned cold and rainy with no chance of a break from it. Spencer left early to catch his flight for Oslo and I got the kids off to school and came back home to get the apartment in order and laundry done in preparation for our trip (okay, and I confess, I went back to bed before I started on that...)

Anyway, I am slowly getting things accomplished and I get a message from Spencer to call him at a number NOW...Oh, oh...so I call him and he says, "Brendan broke his arm. You need to call this number right now." WHAT???!!!! So, I am frantic, of course, and immediately call the nurse at the school. She tells me what has happened and I need to come to the school right away to take him to the sjukehus (basically the ER.) I can hear Brendan in the background yelling, "It hurts like crap!" (and, yes, that is a direct quote...lol) so now I am in tears and I ask if someone can go with me to the hospital (I only have a vague idea where it is, and now I have an injured (and very dramatic) child I have to calmly drive...ummmm, not gonna happen...so the nurse says she will drive us and I grab purse and run out the door. I get to the school and realize I did not bring Brendan's person number (Norwegian ID number), have no make up on and haven't even had a shower yet that day...and, Spencer is in Oslo, Kyla is still at school, and I will have to leave my car in the school parking lot. Okay, one thing at a time, right...

The nurse, Cathy, drives us to the hospital and graciously stays with us through the first few steps before she has to head back to the school. In the meantime, I have received an email from Brendan's teacher who also happens to be Kyla's friend Anouk's mom and she says not to worry about Kyla that she will take care of her. Thank goodness and God bless her! First, we fill out a form and wait...then, we are called back and someone (a doctor, perhaps?) does an initial evaluation and we wait...then we head over to x-ray. We check in there and wait...after a little while, we are sent to one of the numerous x-ray rooms. From there, we are sent to the poliklinikk where we wait and are then called in to a room. We wait a little longer and a doctor comes in and basically tells us they looked at the x-ray, it is pretty bad, and will require sedation to line it back up but we have to wait 6 hours after he has last eaten and wouldn't you know, this happened right after lunch (around 12:30) and we are still hours away from the 6 hour point (okay, at this point, I am thinking a conscious sedation sort of thing in order to cast it.) Now a guy comes in and puts on a temporary, but more sturdy cast and Brendan is put into a bed and wheeled over to what they call triage. At this point, I am beginning to realize when they say sedation, they mean operation...

After the triage room, he is moved to another floor and put in a room where we wait some more. A doctor comes in and talks to us, asks a few questions, and I don't get any more information than I had before...she didn't have answers for us. We wait in that room quite a while, nurses come in and out debating in Norwegian whether they are going to draw blood and make an attempt to put in an IV. It was a no-go and they will only try once and then get someone else to try. After a while, we are moved to the Barn Rom (kids' room) which is basically a room that will hold up to probably 8 beds or so. There, we end up with another family with a 6-year-old with almost the exact same injury and they are about 2 hours ahead of us in the process. We still haven't seen the orthopedic doctor or surgeon. Eventually the nurse comes in and I ask some more questions...basically, I will not see the surgeon because she is in the OR now, will be doing the little boy next to us next, and Brendan after that unless and emergency comes in sometime in between. So, we wait. At least I have someone to visit with now. The parents of the little boy are very kind and we chat for a while. After a couple hours, they come in to take the little boy to surgery and by this time, it is about 8:15 pm. A little over an hour later, they come in to take Brendan. By this time, Spencer is back from Oslo and is trying to get Kyla's situated and the retrieve the car from the school parking lot. Kyla ends up staying the night with Anouk and her dad takes Spencer over to get the car. I am required to stay with Brendan until he is sedated and this turns out to be horrible. Two more nurses try to start IVs and his little veins keep bursting...they finally get one precariously situated in and start the medicine, but it isn't a strong IV and the sedation is very rough. They finally get him to sleep (and end up putting a new line in after that.) In the middle of all that, Spencer has made it to the hospital and is searching for us and I have no idea how to direct him...I come out of the OR area to a waiting area and see Spencer sitting there! YEA!!! Now, it is after 10 PM and we wait to get word that Brendan is out of surgery.

After about an hour, we are called back into what is basically the recovery room and sit with Brendan while he is waking up. Brendan is fighting to wake up and trying to get out of the bed...he is a wiggle worm! He is thrilled to see his Daddy and shortly we are moved back up to the Barn Rom where we join the other little boy and his parents. The night nurses are very kind and bring a bed in for us to sleep on beside Brendan. Spencer has found us food (neither of us had eaten) and the nurses bring a very hungry Brendan some crackers and juice. We then settle in for the night. Spencer heads out early to go to work (remember we are trying to leave for vacation on Friday and it is now Thursday morning.) I stay with Brendan anxiously waiting to see the doctor. Eventually, we are wheeled down for another xray and the doctor visits (now mind you, this is probably the 5th doctor we have seen and never the same one twice.) I again reiterate that fact that we are flying on Friday so that they will fix his cast to allow for additional swelling. The doctor is okay with this and sends someone up to slit the cast so he can travel. The only issue that is I am now dealing with is the fact that they want to see him in the clinic on Friday, Oct. 15th and we fly back that day, but too late for the appointment. I ask about Saturday, but they do not do Saturday appointments and the doctor is less than thrilled with Monday...oh, oh...he eventually relents and we get a Monday, Oct. 18 appointment for his check up. Whew! The other boy and Brendan get their release instructions and we call daddy for a ride home! By now it is about 11 AM Thursday, so this has been an almost 24 hour detour from the plan...

We get Spencer back to work and I head home to regroup. Later that afternoon, I take Brendan up to the school to gather his belongings and all the work he has and will be missing...because, now he has missed part of Wednesday, all of Thursday, will miss Friday for our vacation, and will miss most of the Monday they return to school for the follow-up appointment...super....I also check in on Kyla and see my sweet girl for a minute. Okay, so NOW I can focus on getting us ready for our vacation...!

After a very busy Thursday evening, I have suitcases packed and a family ready to head out on a much anticipated trip to Salzburg and Munich! Stay tuned for our vacation blogs and photos...(it may take me a week to catch up on it all!!!)