Injury after injury

Monday was an interesting day. A group of kids were going out to play capture the flag after dark. We gave them boundaries, everything seemed like it was going to be ok. But I didn't have a good feeling about it.

At about 10:30, Kari gets a phone call and my name is mentioned. Someone who was playing capture the flag needed to go to the ER because she got up close and personal with the curb. I rushed over to where they were at and we head over to the ER. This girl's chin has a pretty good size chunk out of it. So we fill out her paperwork, and we sit and wait. And wait. And wait. We waited out in the living room for about 3 hours. Then we get to go back into a little room. A person comes in, takes her vitals and we wait some more. The doctor comes in to see us, looks at her chin, tells us what we already know (she's going to need stitches) and we wait some more. They come in to clean her chin up and we wait some more. The doctor comes in to actually put the stitches in and that didn't take very long at all. In total, we were in that little room for 3 hours. So we left around 10:30 Monday night and we got back around 4:30 Tuesday morning and the ER was only a block away. Ridiculous. 4 stitches, that's it.

Tuesday morning I wake up to ref the volleyball tournament that's been going on. We only have 2 games in the morning and they had been going rather quickly. During the first game, the very last point, a girl passed the ball and then fell backwards. No one really thought much about it. The game ended, her team lost. We I went to the other ref to write down who won and the girl's team is gathering around her because she is crying. My first thought was, "Holy cow girl, its just a volleyball game. Get over it." Then she asked for some ice because she fell on her wrists. She gets off the court and someone gets her some ice and we go on with the next game.

After the 2nd game, the girl is still sitting there in pain and her adviser and teacher are talking to her. I go up to see if there is anything I can do. The 3 of them think she sprained her wrists, so I have to take her to the health center. Oh great. Keep in mind it is only 12ish in the afternoon.

We go there, get more ice, and go into a little room. This wait time was nothing, I was becoming a pro at waiting. You can tell she's really in pain and her wrists are really swollen. The health center wanted us to get X-rays so they sent us down the road to a place. We get there and we wait. Still not as long as with the chin girl. She gets in with only waiting maybe 45 minutes. Then afterwards we have to wait for the doctor to read the X-rays and the took the longest here. They don't tell us anything except for they have called ahead to the Orthopedic place in town and want us to go there right away.

Wrist girl and I go there. I fill out her paper work, we get moved to a different waiting room and we wait. We waited there for 3-4 hours again before we got moved to another room. They take her vitals, the doctor comes in and tells us she broke BOTH of her wrists. She was devasted. She gets splinted up because the doctor tells her she can get her casts on when she gets home, and we head back to camp. We get back at 7 pm.

So in a 24 hour time spand, I spend 13 of those hours in medical facilities. It sucked but it was fun at the same time if that makes any sense. I got to know the girls that hurt themselves really well.

Back to wrist girl. Imagine not being able to use your wrists for anything. You can't go to the bathroom by yourself (found that one out first hand), can't drink or eat without help, can't do much of anything. You don't realize how much you wouldn't be able to do until you can't do it.

Well chin girl is still here at camp but wrist girl ended up going home last night because she felt so bad. Her dad flew in from Kansas City and they flew out this morning. It's been a pretty bad week for injuries and I always seem to get them. Better me than some other people here.

We have one more volleyball game tonight and I'm just praying for no injuries because I really don't want to go the ER again, that was the worst. We'll see what happens.