Last night the whole crew had dinner at Katie's.  She had an uncommon panick attack early in the afternoon and tried to dump the whole thing on me, but then she called right back and shrieked "Just Kidding!"

Someday I'll kill her, of course, but not today.

Not today.

So, by 6:30 her house and backyard were filled with relatives.  In fact, due to the large number of us, it's safe to say that her neighborhood was full of relatives.  We sort of overflowed into her neighbor's yards, which was okay because they were having parties, too.

Nobody ever notices one or ten extra kids, right?  Or is that just us?

Everyone was having a grand time until Gus came walking up the driveway crying.

"Whatsamatter, Gus?" his dad asked.

"I broke my arm."  Gus whimpered. "I fell outta the car and I broke my arm."

"Aww, let's look at it." Andy reached for Gus, who recoiled from him.

"Don't touch it, it's busted!" He warned.

"Whadayou know?  You're four!  You're diagnoses are hardly ever right!"  Andy looked at Gus's arm.  "Oh." 

The next thing we know, Andy and Gus are speeding off to the emergency room, Gus's arm bent at a very unatural angle.

The rest of us expressed concern and went right back to our brats.  We all have kids.  Broken arm?  Been there, done that.  Broken leg?  Thirty two years ago, Joe spent four months in traction.  Yawn.  Sliced cornea, concussion, dislocation, stitches, done it all.  Last summer, Zack split his head open on the backboard while playing basketball in that very driveway and no one stopped eating. 

We figured Andy and Gus would be back in time for dessert with a cool plastic cast we could sign.

Okay, so we misjudged

Turns out poor Gus shattered his arm just above the elbow.  The break was so thorough that the doctors at the emergency room decided he'd need surgery to set it properly.  Since Gus is so little, they decided that he needed to be ambulated to Children's Hospital where they had a pediatric anesthesiologist on call and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon to set the bone.  He was in surgery until 3:30 this morning.

He was a total trooper.  Hardly cried at all, and growled threateningly at the doctors who insisted on lifting the broken limb.

Now he's home, exhausted and casted up.  He's got four pins holding his arm together.  The worst part of all?  No swimming til the cast comes off in four weeks.

So now it's not a party til someone breaks a bone.

 

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