A Week of E.R. Visits

—Alivia and my grand niece got to watch a rescue drill with the Air Force crew that is visiting Cass Lake to offer free medical services, and also were able to watch a LifeFlight helicopter come in for a landing and the crew take part in the training drill.

By Allan Olson

I’m pretty sure my kids have been to the Emergency Room (ER) more times than I or any of my brothers went while growing up – combined. Now, my brothers and I weren’t careful, but we weren’t reckless, either. I don’t feel that my kids are reckless, really, but two of the four made visits to the ER this past week.

The first of two visits started on Monday evening when Marcus somehow managed to smash his toe into a desk/dresser. For most people this would probably just result in a sprained toe, but Marcus made it extra special; x-rays confirmed that he did indeed fracture his big toe. Now we didn’t rush him immediately in to the ER like a fragile little boy; we waited until his toe had swelled up considerably and started turning a pretty color. Then we decided that it should probably be examined. Of course, by that time we were both pretty sure what the diagnosis would be, and naturally, he can’t be seen by the podiatrist until the day we are slated to leave on vacation, which will be three weeks after the injury occurred. In my opinion, that appointment probably doesn’t even matter, since at that point it will likely be most of the way healed.

The week seemed to fly by, and Marcus appeared to be getting better each day. He started to play more and more with his cousin, probably doing things he’s not supposed to, including retrieving candy at the parade, climbing, swimming and playing baseball. At least he wore his protective boot during all of those activities (except swimming).

Then came Friday. I had Abigail and a friend of hers, Alivia, and my grand-niece Kinley who we were watching for the weekend. We were hanging out by my office listening to the music from Rib Fest (well, at least I was) waiting for the fireworks. The kids were playing around and the next thing I know, I was told that Alivia hurt herself, only feet from where I was sitting. She was in the bathroom, and tried to pretend her injury wasn’t very bad. I went to check it out, but she wouldn’t show me the injury. I removed the paper towel she had covering it and immediately knew we weren’t watching fireworks tonight. I told the others to get in the vehicle, and told Alivia that she was going to the ER to get stitches. With that, the tears flowed. In between the sobs, I heard her say a few times, “I don’t want to get stitches!” In the meantime, I called her mom and told her to meet me in Bemidji. 

We dropped Abi’s friend off and I directed my vehicle toward the ER. My wife pulled in just ahead of me and, not thinking, I just parked out in the parking lot. She told me to drive up and drop our daughter at the door, so listening to my experienced ER wife, I did just that.

I went in for a couple minutes and waited, but since the other two girls were waiting for me outside, I headed home and let my wife take care of the injured one. They finally got home at about 1 a.m., about 30 minutes after I had given up on waiting for them and gone to bed and apparently fallen right to sleep, because I have no recollection of them coming home.

The joke later from my wife became, “I don’t think being on a first name basis at the ER is a good thing,” she said. I agree, but aside from building rubber rooms for the kids, I don’t think there’s much else we can do, and in all honesty, I think they would still find ways to injure themselves.

The next morning I was up early and headed back into town for Rib Fest. I dropped Nikolai off to help with prepping the team’s robot for their competition this week. I cleaned up the office a little – there were a few spots of blood left on the bathroom floor – and then waited for the parade.

After the parade, there was the Little Miss Cass Lake pageant and after that the Miss Cass Lake pageant, and the day continued. I took a break from the festivities for a late supper at home, before returning to claim a spot with my injured daughter for Saturday’s fireworks over the lake. We enjoyed the show and the company around us before heading home for the evening.

We were back on the road again early on Sunday morning, this time to take Nikolai to meet the bus for his Upward Bound trip to Chicago. Back at home, we discovered that everyone was still sleeping (music to my ears) so back to bed I went, too; when I next awoke it was noon.

My wife and her mom worked on their Ancestry project for an upcoming reunion on Sunday afternoon, and I did some other work. Later, I connected with someone giving away free scrap wood, and soon I was on the road with Marcus and my nephew and a trailer in tow. Back at home, we unloaded the materials in the garage and I still didn’t call it a day. Instead, I ingested some food and then got my camera gear set up to shoot the Northern Lights – except they didn’t appear while I was out. Apparently they did put on a show at about 3 a.m., but I was already long asleep.

Plans for this week: work, with no chance for recreation until the weekend.

Injury update: As of Monday night, both the wounded kids are healing, and both have improved mobility. Fingers crossed that nobody else gets hurt this week!

Please remember to watch out for the buses that are carrying our most precious cargo. Also, snap a photo or two to preserve a lifetime of memories. Thanks for reading, and have a great week! Feel free to drop me a line at cltimes1@arvig.net or stop by the office for a visit.