"Sovereign Lord, you are God! Your covenant is trustworthy, and you have promised these good things to your servant." (2 Samuel 7:28)One day earlier this month on the way to pick up the kids from school, I got a call from our daughter's teacher saying that they were considering calling 911 about an accident my daughter had been in and wanted my input. I arrived five minutes later, dressed in gym clothes. (Since I had just finished working out at home, I was not in clothing that was modest enough for entrance into the school. I was a sweaty mess with no makeup and hair in frazzled bun. (Lesson learned: Never assume no one will see you when driving through car pool!)
My daughter had fallen on glass and has some deep lacerations in her hand. They directed me to the nearest hospital where we went directly to the ER.
296. A brand new hospital with a fully equipped ER located five minutes from the kids' country school
I asked the gals at the check-in desk if the hospital accepted Aetna insurance, and they claimed they did, thereby saving me from having to drive all over this town I don't know very well looking for a hospital that does.
297. Insurance accepted
The process was long as one might expect at any ER, but at least we got into a room fairly quickly where my girl who had been leaning on me with all her weight, so that I practically had to carry her the entire way, could finally lie down. At this point the industrial engineer in me came out as I picked apart their ridiculous process of seeing each patient. What should have been done in less than 30 minutes took three hours because it was so inefficient, and I guess some of the ridiculous process flow protocols were all an attempt to keep lawyers away. The last time I visited the ER, I was pregnant with this 9-year-old girl and we arrived after midnight on a Saturday night. That was the worst timing ever with cases coming in that no one should have to witness.
298. Arriving at the ER at 4pm on a weekday instead of late one weekend day which would have taken much longer to be seen
299. Thankfully, there was a TV in our room playing old episodes of Little House on the Prairie which can calm the tensest nerves and cause one to recount her blessings during trials.
As we continued to wait and wait as at least six different staff members entered to ask us the same questions or bring in some necessary supplies....
300. Reruns of The Brady Bunch followed on the TV in her room next which had us all laughing over the outfits and nostalgic episodes instead of fretting over little one's bloody writing hand
Our daughter was finally seen by a physician's assistant (who around here tend to be much friendlier than surgeons and sleep deprived doctors) an an eager, attractive college student. The college student did all the work while the P.A. charmed my little girl.
301. Friendly caregivers who helped calm my needle-phobic daughter as she attempted to cope with the pain
Since it was obviously a teaching hospital, the P.A. and student explained everything they were doing in great detail which fascinated my inquisitive, precocious little boy who was running out of patience as I was running out of change for the vending machine calling his name as it was past dinner time by now.
302. Clear explanation of procedures by patient staff
The timing for this injury could not have been much worse. She injured her right hand which had to be kept wrapped in large dressings for the next 10 days. She writes with her right hand, and all the schools EOGs were scheduled to begin the following day and continue all the next week.
303. Thankfully, the test administrators accommodated her temporarily disability.
They allowed her to swipe the selected answer with a highlighter which they then went back and filled in for her with a #2 pencil. I hope they didn't make any mistakes and that the awkward method of test taking did not cause her to make more careless mistakes than usual.
She had just entered the last month of her gymnastics season with the final show she had been preparing for all year scheduled within the next few weeks, but since she could not use her right hand, she had to drop out of gymnastics for the rest of the year. She was highly disappointed, but with our end of the school year schedule so hectic, I was relieved!
She also had a piano guild audition scheduled for two weeks later and would not be able to practice for it until she got her stitches removed a few days before her audition and not soon enough to get a lesson in before the auditions with both hands playing again. She continued with piano lessons using only hand, but she was not able to practice her guild pieces which required both hands. Interestingly, following WW2, many complicated music pieces were written for just one hand so that those who had lost limbs in the war could continue playing the piano with the other hand.
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| One-handed piano lessons |
304. Her bold and successful attempt to play five pieces from memory at Regional piano guild after going almost two weeks without practicing them
When we returned to the ER 10 days later to have her stitches removed, my daughter screamed her head off, much worse than she ever did when the stitches were being placed. Thankfully, she and I both started quoting Bible verses, and God's word calmed her down so that the removal could finally be completed.
305. The power of God's word to carry us through painful experiences
During the time that her writing hand was bandaged, she learned to write somewhat legibly (albeit not very neatly) with her left hand. If this injury lasted much longer, she could have become ambidextrous.
306. The body's ability to make accommodations for weaker parts (1 Corinthians 12: 12-31)
The children's bible study ministry at our church, BLAST, delivered a music program for the parents while our daughter's hand was bandaged. She got up there and danced with the rest of them. Instead of clapping her hands, she clapped her wrist/forearm. She learned how to adapt to her limitations as needed.
When we got the $1360 bill for those two stitches set in place by an unpaid college student, we were thankful to have health insurance. Since we normally see doctors who have found it is cheaper and tremendously easier to skip insurance altogether and just bill patients a small amount similar to what their co-pay would be, we rarely ever see any benefit from our very high premium insurance. However, at this point, we were grateful...until we got a bill stating that insurance only paid $112, and we owed the rest in addition to the $200 co-pay we had already paid the day of the accident. When I called to inquire about this charge, the billing company put me on hole for 20 minutes, answered, and then hung up on me, so I had to call again and wait again for a person who told me this doctor was out-of-network (even though I had already verified that at the front desk). Anyway, just before I was about to crack, I finally got through to my insurance company which agreed to send us a check for the huge bill which we would have to pay. I haven't seen the insurance check yet, but I am hopeful. The amount that hospital charged for two stitches from a student is ridiculous to me, but at least...
307. We have health insurance...
....which isn't being withheld from us because of our political and religious views...at least not yet.
All thoughts of feeling frustrated by those matters vanished, however, when we saw the devastation in Moore, OK wrought by one very large tornado. Entire parts of the city were obliterated with dozens of people killed and over 200 injured. I've been in the middle of natural disasters before and remember watching co-workers and friends who had lost everything in 500-year high flood waters filter through all the moist remains of their home and all their belongs. But the damage in Moore is hard to fathom. There is hope, though, as Americans, particularly from the evangelical conservative community are generously giving large sums to help Moore rebuilt and sending teams of volunteer to labor long hours on their behalf out of great love for those in need. To learn more ways to help Moore, OK, click here.
308. Generous, servant-minded, Americans who help their brothers in times of need
We were blessed by the outpouring of concern from close friends, relatives, and even people who barely know us as they wanted to know if any of my husband's family, who all live in Oklahoma where he lived as well until college, were impacted.
309. Expressions of concern which communicate love to us
Thankfully, I am grateful to report that...
310. None of my in-laws or family friends were injured or suffered any significant damage from the tornadoes.
My husband's closest relatives never even saw in rain, so we feel very fortunate.
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