The arm: cast number two!

Sad but true, we have a new hot pink cast at our house! New cast, same girl. Royce, who fractured her wrist in August, ended up breaking her elbow in late September. The injury occurred while we were playing on the side lines of a sports field, watching a middle school rugby game. During the game, a boy broke his femur and the twins and I watched as an ambulance took the poor boy away. We talked about broken bones and then minutes later, got first-hand experience when Royce fell. She begged me not to call the ambulance and we did not. We called Dad instead.

Phil took Royce to Adventist Hospital in Happy Valley, about 20 minutes from our house. Very nice friends in our building watched our other kids while I joined Royce at the hospital for midnight surgery. Royce was very brave and her surgery went well. We were the only family out in the hospital halls. Apparently the hospital shuts down at 6pm and most comply with this. We were at a private hospital, the same one Adam had his tonsils out at, and not at a public hospital which might have been busier. A team of nurses and a pediatric orthopedic surgeon were called in for Royce. They came, wheeling big pieces of hospital equipment with them. When it was done, the equipment came out first and then the little girl. Royce spent one night in the hospital and left the next day.

For periodic checks, we visit Royce’s doctor at his office, not the hospital. With an emphasis on pediatrics, he has juice and snacks in the waiting room and various small toys one can take for being brave. And on top of all that, he gave Royce a present. In Hong Kong, many people enjoy Royce chocolates, a Japanese brand of chocolates aimed at an adult consumer. Not only did we get Royce chocolates but we also got many Royce bags and tins. The whole thing was pretty exciting. I heard that Royce shared with her class about the Royce chocolates but not about the surgery or cast. Needless to say, Royce is quite the star in first grade with two broken bones this year and two lost teeth.

Weather in Hong Kong has been rainy. This has helped keep us all about of the pool while Royce is in her cast. We even stayed away from the mid-Autumn festival celebrations down at the beach over the weekend in an attempt to keep the sand out of the cast and the cast out of the sea. But we caved when our friends (the same ones who helped during the emergency!) invited us on a junk boat. Royce put a plastic bag around her cast and joined the party, riding the banana boat behind us and jumping off the junk boat into the sea. While the other un-injured kids jumped off the highest level of the boat, about 15 feet, Royce jumped off the lower level, at about 7 feet. She would jump off the boat and immediately raise her pink cast out of the water and then swim, one-arm out of the water, back to the boat. While others might have been appalled by this, I was okay with it. It showed she is still our active girl but one who is exercising, hopefully, a little more caution.