There are some things that you never want to hear. We had one of those recently.

My son was in an accident at school. Even better, the phone connection wasn’t clear. My youngest is in middle school. He was caught in a fracas between classes, and ended up on the floor and was stepped on or run over – we don’t know. The result was two broken wrist bones.

We use LVHN. I was happy when we moved to the Valley, that we have two great health care organizations in friendly competition. I am even more happy about that now.

We went to Express Care. They sent us to the hospital for x-rays. Then back to urgent care. They showed me the x-ray, and then directed us to the Children’s ER at Cedar Crest Hospital.

Staff members at the children’s ER were wonderful. They tried to set the break, but their Herculean efforts were unsuccessful. So we were admitted to Reilly Children’s Hospital.

The children’s hospital was amazing. My older son brought us clothes and food. My older son was hospitalized over 20 years ago in another part of Pennsylvania. He agreed the hospital atmosphere at Reilly was a huge improvement.

My poor younger son was miserable. The break was very painful. He had surgery the next morning. It took a long time. Finally the surgeon came out to talk to me. He said the surgery was a little more complicated than expected.

Initially, he thought they would use a single pin to hold the break together. They ended up using two. He also said there was absolutely no way setting the break manually would have worked, and the cast will have to stay on longer than anticipated. We will find out how long at the post-op appointment.

Once we were back in the hospital room, it took a while to find a medication that would allow my son to rest. Unfortunately for my kids, their heritage is over one half Irish and Scottish. Their father’s side has a resistance to antibiotics and painkillers. My side threw in an overactive metabolism that processes medication extra fast.

At one point, my son was weeping and crying “Help me!” over and over. He also got so frustrated with the pain, he started beating his healthy hand against his thigh so hard that the skin around his IV started bleeding. It was soul-crushing.

The nurse was doing everything she could; we were just waiting for the doctor to order another medication, and it took some time.

I can’t say enough about how wonderful the hospital staff was. Everyone was kind and caring. My older son suggested the use of color and other details would be nice for adults, too. While I agreed, I don’t think that will ever be a thing.