Two days ago, when I arrived home from work, Veck said Dana rolled off the sofa and hurt her shoulder. Dana seemed however, her usual self, except for some tenderness in her left shoulder. Yesterday Veck suggested we take Dana to a "manghihilot." "Hilot" is a traditional massage in the Philippines that realigns one's posture. Veck said she noticed that Dana has some difficulty raising her left arm up.
I prayed because I didn't feel right about the hilot. So I wrote in my notebook and asked for guidance. I felt we should have her x-rayed and be looked at by an orthopedic. So that's what we did this morning and the x-ray revealed a hairline fracture. Fortunately, one of Veck's co-residents at the pediatric hospital, Dr KC, is also an orthopedic. He advised an arm sling. Veck asked if he would advise hilot and he said no. He said that for children this is the most common fracture and it would heal naturally in two weeks.
We bought Dana an arm sling but she refused to wear it. Like absolutely went wild--so it sort of defeated the purpose of trying to immobilize the arm. I just asked the nanny to make sure she doesn't play around too much.
One of the nurses brought her son to the ER where we were. The little boy was running around playing. Dana was standing there admiring the curtains. I had the intuition that the boy might shove Dana, but didn't pay attention. I was texting my supervisor advising them that I might not report for work or for rehearsals.
Then it happened. The boy roughly shoved Dana and she fell on her back and hit her head. With panic Veck cried. I picked up Dana who was also crying. We were really worried and I told the boy in Tagalog: "Do you want to be guillotined?"
His mother came and spanked and spanked him in front of everyone--something that I am against: spanking children in public. Well, I am also against allowing your child to play where they shouldn't. We were at the ER, not a playground. But I also felt I should have listened to intuition and told the young boy gently but sternly that this wasn't a playground. If I had done that then he wouldn't have been running around.
I didn't go to work but spent the day with Dana. She was supposed to go to my sister's place because it's her cousin's birthday tomorrow and she was supposed to spend the weekend but I thought it's better she's not surrounded by playmates. We arrived home around noon and she
was in a good mood and wanted to play. I was careful to watch her that she doesn't force her left arm or shoulder. She still refuses to wear the arm sling.
We both fell asleep during the afternoon. I woke up at five thinking whether to go to rehearsals or not.
Oh boy, the joys of parenthood.
