Our Trip To The...Exotic Emergency Room

It all started innocently, as everything does, I get the great idea to travel 300+ miles to Rexburg Idaho to visit Blake on the job site and see the project he has been working on for the past 7 months. A month ago I arranged my work schedule so I would have 4 days off, got the car serviced, began hoarding non-messy snacks Brody enjoys eating and mentally planning this vaycay. We arrived on schedule. Brody was a happy boy, we went out to dinner with the owner of the company Blake works for, we were having a great time. Went back to the hotel. Swam in the pool. Brody loved every minute of it. I even commented to Blake while we were swimming that these type of fun family moments make the frustrating, difficult moments as a mother worth it. The next morning we got up after Blake had left to the hotel room to go to work. Let me also say that Brody and I play this game everytime I have to get him dressed and/or change his bum. I always yell, "Come here Mertle," "Get back here Mertle," "Stop joking around Mertle," and Brody runs around naked and screams and thinks it's hilarious until I catch him. We were playing this game on the king sized hotel bed, I thought we were safe, but alas...I was wrong.He fell over backwards off the edge of the bed. I heard a pop/snap. My heart sank. It was one of those moments as a mother where you just close your eyes and cringe and hope that your son will stop crying and his arm will stop just dangling there limp. He was obviously in A LOT of pain. He was SCREAMING, outright top of lungs, SCREAMING. His right arm was just hanging there, he wouldn't move it. I seriously just wanted to drop the F-Bomb. But I refrained.


I called Blake, got directions to the one and only hospital in Rexburg and drove to the ER. Everyone at Madison Memorial Hospital was very nice. We were the ONLY patient in the ER. Dr. Packer took charge of him. Even before the X-Rays you could feel his clavical separated. After the X-Rays came back the indeed confirmed he does have a fractured clavical and right suprachondular fracture in his elbow. Dr. Packer said it just looked like the bone had been crushed to pieces. He called down the one radiologist and the one pediatrician in the hospital at the time and they all agreed not to touch it. The didn't dare set it in a permanent cast until the swelling went down and until someone who sees more than 2 pediatric broken arms a year could properly treat it. We have a follow-up scheduled for Tuesday with his normal pediatrician and I'm hoping he can just set it and we don't have to go to a specialist. The following is a list of reasons why this sucks:
1. Brody hurts, his little face tenses up and gets full on tears if he forgets and tries to use that arm. He can't roll over or stand up by himself because he is right handed and he attempts to use that arm and then cries in pain.
2. He is RIGHT handed. I doubt he will be after this ordeal. It only happened a day ago but he is already using his left hand really well and eating with it, holding objects, etc...
3. Our insurance. I just switched our health plan to a HealthSave account. So our deductible is $3000. I am going to have to pay, out of pocket, for this entire adventure. I'm sure that those fat cats at Select Health will not give any sort of adjustment for the ER visit, especially because it was at a non-participating hospital.
4. I feel like a terrible mother. I look at him and my heart aches. I want to take the pain away, and it pains me to know that I was partially responsible for the accident. About 2 weeks ago Blake took Brody to Home Depot and dropped him while getting him out of the cart. This resulted in a black eye and a split lip. I gave Blake SUCH a hard time about hurting Brody. I teased him relentlessly that I hadn't caused ONE accident in 15 months and then all of a sudden he isn't being careful and it results in a black eye and split lip. Karma is a bitch.