Small boy, big cast

J came back from A and E with a collar and cuff, feeling fine. Apparently the X-ray was quite fun and the machine made a noise like a helicopter, which was “quite reassuring, actually”. We propped him up with pillows and he slept fine, didn’t need painkillers the next morning and was happy to come along to Tots as normal. It was an unexpectedly busy session, although J and J were both taking it easy, and we had a few new families and a few older children come along. Plans are afoot for encouraging the older ones to come along sometimes so that we can have more of an all-age feel and something for our older ones to grow into 🙂
We ended up staying for lunch and then chat and didn’t get home until well into the afternoon, arriving back just as Barbara phoned to say their car was not going to be ready and they wouldn’t make it after all 🙁 Quick racking of brains led to lots of looking up of train times, prices and destinations – we were not going to give up easily! In the end, I think less than four hours elapsed between that phone call and the Rainedrops getting a local train from unmanned station to bigger station, where they could get a railcard (and many thanks to the rail official who sorted that out, sold them a ticket and still gave them time to get to the right platform in the 7 (8?) minutes they had to spare between arrival and departure!) and then catch the train to a station near enough to us to make Bob going out to collect them at 10 o’clock at night a sensible proposition even in a slightly dodgy car (which confirmed my mistrust by cutting out on them just a few hundred yards from home, but fortunately decided to start up again happily enough). They got here at about 11 and the little ones were whisked straight off to bed while the grown-ups stayed up far too late chatting!
J’s fracture clinic appointment on Friday morning looked likely to cause problems and J was keen to just postpone it, as the nurse had said he could do if he was coping well with cuff and collar. He clearly was coping very well, but the degree of swelling worried me a little so we thought it best to get it over with since we had an appointment anyway. Since we had ten people and only 7 car spaces transport was going to be a problem anyway; the plan to use our car for KH and the Rainedrop car for either fracture clinic or extra bodies to KH having been scuppered by it not being mended in time we needed to think again. Bob thought he had hired a small car online, but when we phoned to confirm on Friday morning it turned out that they didn’t have any left to hire, so we had to do a bit more frantic googling and then ringing round and eventually found a company which had a car available but only from 10 or 10:30 (clinic app’t 10:15) 😕 Looked again at their website and realised they offered a pick up service, so asked if they would be willing to pick up from the hospital… Not only were they willing to do that, and to do it at an uncertain time (whenever the app’t over) but their rates were about 2/3 everyone else’s, with no extra charge for pick-up 😀 Yay!
By now we should have been leaving for KH, but I still had to take Bob and J plus one to the hospital. Bob decided he was willing to brave taking A, as she would be least bothered by missing KH and if she did start to wail then that might encourage people to do things for them faster at the clinic 😉 so I dropped off man, boy, babe, sling and car seats and then dashed back home, flung random picnic type food into a bag while Barbara strapped assorted children into the car and we set off, hoping for decent roads and patient friends. We got both 😀
Kentwell was fab (I shan’t go into it now or we’ll miss swimming!) but the news from Bob a bit grim: the consultant (seen after a half hour or so wait) felt that J’s arm needed to be in plaster, which meant another wait for an X-ray, then back to wait for consultant again, then off to plaster room… We had decided that the cut-off point for it being worth coming to join us at KH was probably 1:45, meaning they should be there by about 3 for a couple of hours of looking around before driving back. Bob phoned at 1:35 to say that they were just waiting for the hire car pick-up. At 3:30, starting to worry, I phoned his mobile to see where they were, to get (from J) the unexpected answer “Sudbury.” “Why are you in Sudbury?!” “Er, I don’t know… Daddy, why are we in Sudbury?” 😆 Apparently the roads were not so good for them, then they got rather low on petrol, missed a turning somewhere on the way to the petrol station suggested by someone they stopped to ask… Anyway, they got there just in time to get in before last entry at 4 and were able to join us at the alchemists’ copse 😀 J looked in good form, considering, with an impressive amount of bandage and a back slab cast, awaiting more plaster on Monday morning. A was very pleased to see me 😉
All in all, a very pleasant day, in lovely company (we managed to combine seeing three different families we don’t really see enough of 😀 ) and with a lot less hassle than we feared at times!

Okay, this post has sat here waiting to be finished for too long. I’m going to publish now and do the rest later!