Sunday, May 11, 2008

Well I sure got that all wrong !

We ( the wife & me ) were up at PQ ( in town ) babysitting Friday night ,,, & well into Sat. afternoon !
The son and his wife ( said baby's maw & paw ) were attending a wedding down Seamill way and decided to stay over in the famous Hydro for the night.
During our stay in the big house ( in PQ that is, not Glasgow's infamous Barlinnie prison ) our daughter brought along her family ,,,, hubby-to-be ? Thomas ,,, and kids Marcel, Lotsie, Pudgeman & Tiny-bits for dinner and after dinner games ,,, ( I think this was her way of "helping" us old folks baby-sit one child ,,, bringing along 4-more !! Oh no, make that 5 ,,,
I forgot, Thomas too is still quite young ! )
Anyway, on leaving yesterday I suddenly remembered about the hide & seek game the son's little Gordy and the daughter's Pudgeman had been playing.
I came across them in the big walk -in cupboard in the hall ,.,. Little Leon (Pudge ) was hiding behind a load of hanging coats & jackets ,,, but the bold Gordy ( well it was his house ! ) I found, half way up the very tall ladder which was parked in there !
"Jesus !" I muttered ( to myself I think ) ,.,. pulling him off and telling him, in no uncertain Grandfatherly tones, how dangerous it was for little boys to climb ladders ,.,..
So here's where it all went wrong ,.,.,.,.
I mentioned to the father that he might keep the cupboard closed and locked in future, or to keep a close eye on his little son's Hilaryesque ways ,,,
Off we went home at that, having done our babysitting and having managed to keep the kid safe and in one piece ,.,.,. only to receive a 'phone call a mere few hours later in the evening from a distraught daughter-in-law to tell us our son ,,, the father of the piece ,,, had only gone and fallen off said ladder and broken his wrist !!
"Jesus !" I muttered ,, and definitely not to myself this time !
Now this would be bad enough in itself but this is the 2nd. time he's done this ,, breaking the arm that is, not falling off ladders ,,, the previous time it was the left arm playing footie ,,, this time it was the right arm, "fixing" a fallen curtain rail !! And this time in front of a single glazed window, with a fall to the street more than high enough to kill him !! And the broken wrist could of course just as easily have been a broken neck ,,,
You just never get away from parental worry do you ?
There are times when the wife & I wonder if they're actually trying to put us into an early grave intentionally .,. it's not like we've got pots of money to leave them or anything !
Maybe they're just tired of us ???
:O) ... Seriously .... the follow up ...
The son had to spend all Saturday night in great pain with his hand facing completely the wrong direction at the end of his arm ,,, he was taken 10-floors down for a chest x-ray early next morning, having not slept all night, to ensure he was fit to undergo a general anaesthetic ( a precaution since he suffers from asthma ) but then asked to find his own way back to his ward since a porter could take up to 1/2 an hour to be found ! With the hand still in severe pain he didn't even know which ward he had come from ,,,!
The consultant surgeon finally came to see the wrist later that morning ! The worst break he'd seen in over 10-years he called it ,.,. Oh God, not again .... ( his mother & I didn't sleep much that night either.)
He operated Sunday, mid morning, a 31/2 hour op. ( apparently very successfully ) and our dear son now has a metal plate inserted deep in his hand/wrist, held in place with several screws and covered in old fashioned stookie ,, No, take that back ,, this is new fashioned stookie ,, a wet, but lighter plastic version which hardens very much quicker than the old plaster of Paris, but will still be on for at least a month. He was checked over at 7-30am Monday for any infection in the wound and also that he had come through an overnight after the general anaesthetic ,, and pronounced fit to go home ,.,. Just as soon as he received his appointment card ( for the return visit in a month to remove the stookie ! ) oh, and his pain relief medication, he could go !
Believe it or not this took longer than the operation !!! His wife and mother finally, after many abortive 'phone calls had to go down there at the regular afternoon visiting hour at 2-30pm and only then did they manage to get these vital release items !!
Like I've been known to say before ,, It's the NHS Jim but not as we know it !
Oh and the final piece in the jig-saw ,..,,
Wait for this ,.,.,. The daughter-in-law, God bless her, asked ME if I could go up these same, but now bent and broken ladders and fix the bloody curtain rail ,, ‘cause wee Gordy can’t sleep unless the room is in darkness !!
They ARE trying to get rid of us aren’t they ????

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