BrokenArm

      It had been a terrific day for Ben as he rode the ski lift for the last run of the day. The day had been full of jumps, fast turns, and hard falls on the rented snowboard. It had been a Terrific day for Ben. For this last run Ben went to the very highest point in the entire Sunrise Ski Park. It would be green circle slopes at first, then it would get into the blue square, hard enough on skies and quite difficult on a snowboard.
   As he went along the easy slope, he saw a big mound of snow. Snow boarders were going up and down it, it didn't look very hard. Ben went up one side, it was about 40 feet long, 5 feet wide, and 10 feet tall all made of snow. He rode most of the way with out incident. As he approached the other side, he saw that it was very steep and uneven. He turned the board sideways, and in doing so he went off to the right side. It was at a 75 degree angle for the first 6 feet. He had trouble staying upright, but he was able to until the last four or five feet where it was a straight drop. Ben's feet went forward, and he knew that he was going to land on his rear-end. He stuck both arms out under him. He made the mistake of having his arms straight instead of partly bent.
   Ben doesn't remember if he heard his bone snap or not. As he bounced forward and rolled onto his back, he saw his left forearm bent upward at an unnatural angle. He knew immediately that his arm was broken. It looked just like his right arm when he had broken it 6 years earlier, except that it was bent down, not up. In the next two seconds as he hit the ground hundreds of thoughts rushed through his head. "Crap", "Not again", "This is gonna hurt" "Dang mom doesn't have insurance", �My parents aren�t here!� �I hope they can set it and give me a cast at the ski lodge" "I wonder if I can ski down with it like this", "crap", "I hope this heals quick", "so much for snow-boarding, I was getting good too!", "crap". And Dozens of other thoughts. He hit the ground and rolled onto his back. He moved his arm just a little bit to get it in a more comfortable position. Then he started calling for help. A lady stopped and said, "Are you OK?".
   "No", Ben replied, "I broke my arm."
   "I'll go get help!" she said. And she started down the mountain. One minute later, a snowmobile came by.
   "Are you all right?" the man asked.
   "No," Ben replied, "I broke my arm."
   "I will go get the ski patrol!" he said, and he sped up the mountain. A couple of people stopped to make sure nobody ran him over. They guarded him for a couple of minutes until the ski patrol people arrived. The two men from the ski patrol looked at Ben's arm and shook their heads. One of them pulled out a box that had rolled up metal in it. He unrolled the metal and bent it into the shape of Ben's arm... it was a makeshift splint.
Two other skiers came up asking, "Hi we're medics from Mesa. Is there anything we can do to help?" The ski patrol guy cut Ben's long sleeve up to his shoulder and wrapped the splint to his arm using gauze while the two from Mesa held Ben's arm up; it was excruciating. About the time they finished, a man arrived with a sled.
   "Hi!" he said, "My name is Mike! I'll be your sled driver today."
   "You're going to take me down yourself?" Ben asked, terrified. "I thought a snowmobile would take me."
The men all laughed, and one of them said, "It's OK, Mike's done this a few times before, once even with a real person in the sled." Ben tried to smile, but gagged instead. The five men picked Ben up by his snow clothes and laid him gently in the sled. Then they tied him down with Velcro and straps.
   "Good luck!" said the men as Mike started down the mountain.
   "How fast do you want me to go?" Mike asked Ben as they slowly made their way down the slope.
   "No faster than this!" Ben cried feeling as if he were being dragged by a runaway horse.
   "OK", said Mike, "just yell if you need anything."
   The sled sped up and the bumps hurt his arm, so Ben yelled, "Slower!" He yelled over and over, but Mike must not have heard, he was trying to set a new record for downhill skiing so he continued down the mountain at the same breakneck speed. At the bottom, another man was waiting. The man led him into the ski patrol waiting area. While Ben lay on the bed he gave the man all of the information including phone number, address, and what happened. They called Ben's mom to confirm that Angela, Bens little sister could drive (even though she was only 14) and Ben didn't need an ambulance. The man then told Ben to go to Show Low since they did not have an arm doctor in Springerville.
   Ben and his three siblings all got in the car with Angela driving. They had to put more water in the car so it wouldn't overheat. Angela then drove 35 miles to Pine Top, where Ben drove since Angela had never driven in the city. Ben drove to Wal-Mart where he waited 15 minutes for the pay phone to get freed by a group of rowdy looking Mexicans. He called his mom again to tell her where he was.
   Then the four Martineaus walked into the emergency waiting room. The lady at the front desk got some information from Ben and asked him to wait for the nurse. Five minutes later, the nurse led Ben into a hospital room. Ben sat on the bed and tried to get comfortable.
   The telephone next to his bed started ringing! He answered it. It was his dad's cousin's wife. She told Ben that her son was on his way to pick them up because Ben's mom didn't want them driving home at night. Ben okayed his way through the conversation and hung up.
   A mean-looking man showed up. He had close set eyes and a scar that ran across his cheek and nose. He had a wheelchair and scissors! Ben hoped he had the wrong room. He didn't. He cut the gauze around the splint and told Ben to sit in the wheelchair. Ben was wheeled to the X-ray room where an older doctor was just instructing a group of young people how to operate the X-ray machine and at which angle patients should place their arm. "Great", Ben thought, "I get to be the guinea pig for this newbie!"
   "Place your arm here like this", the young woman instructed, like she knew what she was doing. "We will have to take the splint off since it is metal."
   Ben put his arm under the X-ray machine. It hurt bad. He had to bend over so it would be at the right angle. Ben felt his bone shift. It was a very powerful pain. It felt like the middle of his arm went to sleep. It felt like he had a big funny-bone right in the center of his arm and someone hit it with a sledge hammer. It felt weird. Most of all, it hurt. After taking 3 X-rays Ben sat back in the wheelchair and he was wheeled back to his room. His arm was throbbing. Ben felt very handicapped, being wheeled around in a wheelchair.
   He lay on the bed with an ice pack on his arm. Another man with droopy eyes came into his room. This man was slow. Everything he did was slow. He reminded Ben of a sloth. He slowly opened a drawer and slowly got a measuring tape. He didn't say a word. He slowly reached for Ben's unhurt arm and slowly measured it. Then he slowly got out gauze cloth and other wrapping materials. Another man came in; he was young and looked like a male nurse. He was cheery and more... awake than the first man.
   Now Ben's arm was unsupported and still looked bent. About this time a guy with nonmedical clothes came into the area of Ben's room that opens into the hall. He leaned up against the wall and watched Ben curiously. The male nurse picked up Ben's arm and supported it with Ben's help, while the sloth put a thick warm cloth along one side of Ben's arm, around the elbow and down the other side of the arm. Ben made faces every time the pain became impossible. The man in the doorway still watched him. The sloth then wrapped the arm using several different layers of different kinds of gauze. Ben grunted from the pain a couple of times. The man in the doorway was still there watching. Ben decided that he did not like this guy in the doorway who came to watch him suffer. The last thing the two men did was put a sling on Ben's arm to hold it up.
   After the two men were done wrapping Ben's arm they left without a word. Ben's arm felt a lot better even though it still had pain in it. The thick warm layer of cloth they had put on first was still as warm as ever and it was becoming hard. The man in the door was still there.
   The man in the doorway unexpectedly became animated. "Hi Ben," he said. "My name is Brandon"
   "OK..." Ben said still unsure of who this guy was and why he knew Ben's name. Everyone else in the hospital had called him Benjamin. This was the first person to call him "Ben".
"My mom sent me to pick you up. Your mom doesn't want you driving home this late at night." This was Ben's Dad's Cousin's son.
   A nurse walked in with two pills which she said would dull the pain. The nurse then told Ben that he could leave the hospital as soon as the doctor was done with Ben's report and medication. Fifteen minutes later after signing his name sloppily on a sheet of paper Ben was on his way out the door with prescription papers for Acetaminophen with Codeine and Ibuprofen in his pocket. He would have felt happy but before he had walked out the door one of the doctors had told him that he had explained the X-rays to the pediatrician who had said that he might need surgery and pins in his arm.
Brandon Martineau drove Ben and his siblings across the street to a conveniently placed Wallgreens. Ben ordered the prescriptions, the pharmacist said it would take 15 minutes. This would be Bens firsttime being on a perscription drug, or any drug for that matter.
   By this time the pharmacist was done with Ben's prescription. It cost $20. Ben's mom had only had big bills when she gave Ben money for the trip so he had an extra $40. "Codeine?" Brandon asked, sounding surprised. "That is the stuff kids steal from their parents' medicine cabinet to get high off of!"
   The house was not big or spectacular on the outside, but on the inside it was neat and cozy. All four people from Aragon sat on the couch. Three of them stared at the muted TV while Ben talked with his dad's cousin. He wished his brother and sisters would talk more since he really didn�t feel like chit chat at the moment. Soon dad's cousin's wife, Ronna, came in with chicken noodle soup and kool-aid for the guests. It was the first food they had eaten since lunch and they were all grateful. After they had eaten they were shown to their temperary rooms. Ben was the only one who got a bed.
   As Ben fell asleep that night he realized how fragile he really was. It could just as easily have been his head instead of his arm that was broken. This would be the last of Bens dangerous thrills. No more cliff jumping, lamppost climbing, quad jumping, snowboard tricks, or rock climbing without ropes. Ben was going to be more careful from now on since it was too risky, and expensive, to be getting hurt for nothing.