Ending the Holidays with a BANG!!

August 31st is our Independence Day and also the day before school starts back. Starting last year, our community hosts a Sports Day for the villagers as a way to have one last day of fun before the holidays finish and the school routines start. Carl and I are very involved in the community groups so we were organizing lots for the day and Kahlil and Kamala were very excited about all the races and prizes and fun things planned.


Kahlil's school also started having a Sport's Day last year in June to mark the end of the school terms. Now Brasso Seco is in a mountainous valley with very little flat area so we do not have any official play ground and area for the kids to run and play - they do that in the streets and rivers and such - so the Sport's Day races are held in the road. Kahlil did great and had fun last year (08) and was so excited for this year but in the first race of the day (in June) he fell and got a skid on his forehead, side and legs. So that was the end of his School Sports Day for him and the saving grace for that day was the huge river lobster we caught in the river that afternoon with some visiting friends of his - so he did get a prize and get to eat it too =)!!

After that experience, we were wondering how he would feel about running in yesterdays Community Sports Day, but he was excited and ready and eyeing the first prize. And he went out and ran like a champ and got that first prize as well as two seconds and was truly loving the day!! Kamala too was wanting to run every race no matter what the age or kind of race and she also came away with three prizes for the day!! Even Carl and I tried a few races and I came away with two prizes and Carl won a silver medal but pulled his right hamstring muscle in the process =(.

After the races there was a competition on what is called the "greasy pole". This is a small, straight, thin tree that has been cut down, all branches removed, all bark skinned, and supported about 8 inches off the ground. It is difficult enough to cross like this because it gets especially wobbly in the middle but to add to the excitement and challenge there is a layer of grease put on the pole to make it super slidy. (OK, in hind site this is a recipe for disaster!) Kahlil did not try this last year but was excited about trying this year and took many chances and although he never reached the end, he did well and was having fun. The competition finished when the first person reached the end of the pole. But of course, the pole is still there to play on and that is what Kahlil and many of the boys were doing when down came Kahlil - slipping off the pole, tumbling on the ground and letting out a piercing cry.

We are 45 minutes from the nearest Health Facility in Arima which real;y does not have the ability to do very much. We are another 45 minutes from the nearest hospital (Mt Hope) that can better attend to what we figured was a broken arm. So we hopped in the car with a crying, in pain, grease & grass & mud covered Kahlil and made our way to Mount Hope Medical Complex. Now Trinidad has a free medical system if you are willing to put your health into the hands of the public hospitals. If not, there are many a private clinics that will be happy to take your money. When we were dealing with surgically removing a cyst from Kamala's hip, we chose the private route because the public system did not see it as a priority and we would have had to wait for a year before they would have called her for surgery. We had a great experience. Gratefully, I had heard good and reassuring stories from friends about the Mt Hope Pediatric Accident & Emergency Department so we decided to try the public route first. And I definitely cannot complain! We arrived at 8PM and by 9PM we were going home and Kahlil had been seen by a doctor, had his arm x-rayed, had the x-ray reviewed by doctors and an orthopedic doctor and had a 'backlash' cast put on by the orthopedic doctor. Every person who attended to us was kind, patient, attentive to Kahlil, and totally responsive to all my questions - of which there were many since this is the fist broken bone of any member of our family.

The break is in the left humerus just above the elbow and is gratefully not a bad break in the sense it is not big and did not go all the way through. The main concern for breaks in this area is because of all the vascular activity happening there but each doctor was sure to check his wrist and inner elbow pulses and the mobility of his hand and fingers and everything seems fine. The cast is just hard at the bottom and sides and wrapped in a bandage around but it does go from his hand up the middle of his upper arm. They put it in a sling to help him hold it all in position. We go back next week to the paediatric orthopedic clinic to have it looked at again. Breaks usually take from 6-8 weeks to heal with kids usually healing on the faster side. He is right handed so he can go to school as normal - to which he responded an emphatic NO WAY!!

We were home by 11PM last night and spent all day today watching movies, reading stories, eating soup and crackers and just laying low. Kahlil did not complain with any pain today - just a general discomfort - so I did not give him any kind of medication. We took an evening walk under the light of an almost full moon and breathed in the healing energies of the trees and rivers. We are repeating a mantra throughout the day of "my arm is healed". I have told him the plan is to spend time each evening focusing healing energy on his arm so that he will be healed long before the 8 weeks and we have been talking lots about the fact that it doesn't matter where people are, once they send out that healing energy it will reach his arm instantly and he will have the powers of the universe focused on his healing - lucky thing!!