A Broken Heart

Yesterday was a long hospital day with Hanna. She needed 2 teeth removed and some work done on her braces. This was going to require sedation so I left Dad in charge of things at home and got on the road.

We got there met Mr. N. our usual check in guy. (He is actually an amazing man who spent much time in a hospital as a kid and uses a wheelchair so he totally gets the kids he works with as he has done it all). I got the folder of paperwork to do, in which I sign my kid over to the staff for treatment allowing them to do whatever it is they need to do to bring the kid back in one piece. I go over all of the maybes, could happens. and the like as always and sign off on it. We then get Hanna weighed, vitals taken,go over the when she ate, drank, took her meds, etc. and talk her into putting the crazy night shirt thingy on. ( She does not like that at all). I chat with the nurses. Ms Red Head has had her baby so I check out the photo of the little guy, we talk about how the holidays and vacation went, and they ask about how Lauren is doing so we chat about that a bit, too.

Everyone took off to attend to other matters so I was left to distract and redirect Hanna for a short time. Then the Family Life Specialist Ms S., who I have known for many years now, pops in to say "hi". She says she is going to hook up a video game for a couple of teenage boys and she will be back. She comes back and we begin the routine of rocking, playing tic-tac-toe, drawing, and then repeating the same over and over again. We usually have a lot of walking the hall in the routine, but not today with Hanna non-weight bearing yet. Hanna chooses cotton candy Lip Smackers for her oxygen mask and she proceeds to put about half of it on her hands so we get that cleaned up and then we just keep doing the same things over and over again until our customary hour wait is over and no one has come back to get us so Ms S. goes out to figure things out. They are running behind schedule, so we will have to entertain for a while yet.

Ms S. asks Hanna about her cast. She tells her that Mom drew the bird (it looks like a chicken), made the peace sign, and wrote love on it. She has signatures from some teachers, doctors and kids on there too. Then Ms. S. asks who drew the heart on the cast.and Hanna tells her she did.

Ms S." how come your heart is half black and half green with a crooked line down the middle of it".

Hanna "I make it like that cuz I got a boken (broken) heart".

Ms S. "and why is that"?

Hanna "me and him goin sudy and we boke up cuz him not in my art class no more that why I got boke heart". (we figured out that she was trying to tell us that she and some boy, who she thinks she was going steady with, broke up because he is no longer in her art class)

The boy in question is 1 of 2 that she likes and I am not sure which one is so lucky as to be going steady with her, so I will just call him Art Boy.

Ms S." so what do you 2 do when you are going steady"?

Hanna I draw him pictures and him is funny and makes me laugh in art class".

I figured that since we were on the subject and we needed to keep her busy I would get a piece of paper and the markers out. I asked her to draw for us the kinds of things she drew for Art Boy. She folded the paper in half and drew green and pink hearts, xs and ox all over the front of it. Then she opened it up and with the same green and pink markers drew 2 of her famous stick figures with Botox lips on the inside. They were situated in an intertwined, inappropriate manner. She drew a large heart around them. She told us that they was really in love, forever.

Before she could go any further with this drawing it was time for me to put my white, paper, marshmallow suit on so we could head off to the OR. Once she was sedated I went back to her room, sat down to take the marshmallow garb off. when Ms S. walks in. We just look at each other and both crack up.

I am sure Art Boy has no clue that he had been going steady. The reality is that this teenage girl, who so much wants to be like her peers, with the mind of a little girl, would do just about ANYTHING to fit in. She scares the heck out of me when she does these things though.