Benjabean

Last year I told Ben (my brother) that for his birthday I would go tubing with him, while he was here at boys camp we tried to go, but there wasn’t time. He was disappointed but he told me that I would have to make sure we went the next year (which is now this year) then, at the beginning of the week for boys camp Ben asked if I was gonna be able to tube with him. I told him I wanted to but I wasn’t sure.
Then, on Wednesday, I went to the lake where the boys were having their camp out, I was one of the AO’s (aquatic observer) so Benj sat with me the whole time and we talked a lot.
The next day, I was being an AO on the beach, and Ben’s counselor came up to me and told me that Ben had gotten a little teary eyed at the camp out, he’d said he was homesick and sad because even though I was up here I was always so busy and couldn’t really hang out. I told his counselor about wanting to go tubing with Ben, and how upset I was also that we couldn’t do more together, I loved that Ben hung out with me the whole time and I knew he really wanted to go tubing. Lisa, the head lifeguard that day, over heard and said “we might be able to work something out”. Then, after my shift, I was just about to leave the beach when Ben comes up and said “are you busy this afternoon? Can we go tubing?” I told him I really wanted to, but we had to ask Lisa if it was ok, and Drew is he would drive us. They both said it was no problem so we quickly got suited up and went. Ben loved it, the whole time he kept yelling “this is awesome!” he told everyone that I’d finally given him his birthday present.
Turns out it was a good thing we got that tube ride in, because the next day, Lisa, Katie Cooper and I were just leaving the zip line, when Michael Dyer came driving up in a golf cart. “your brother is going to the hospital” he said. Michael Dyer being Michael Dyer, I of course didn’t believe him. “your lying.” I said, “I’m not,” he insisted, “he fell during the mountain biking class and hurt his arm, I came out here to get you.” so, we all piled into the golf cart and raced back to camp, where I found Benj sitting in the Suburban with his arm in a sling. Benjabean is such a cutie (even if he’ll hate me for saying that) and he didn’t show that he was in pain at all, rather he was just sitting there smiling away. After running around, checking with all the people in charge if it’d be ok if I went with them, Trevor, Ben and I all took off on the 45 minute drive into Marquette. On the way we had a great time, Trevor told us all about the times him and his brother and sister had broken something or had something stitched up, and Ben and I filled him in on a few stories from our own family.
It wasn’t long before we arrived at the clinic in Marquette. We walked up to the desk and were met by a rather rude receptionist. I had never had to check someone in before, so of course I was a bit flustered, but I handed her the blue sheet with all of bens info, expecting that to be enough, but the woman kept acting all exasperated with us, like we were just silly children wasting her time. She got especially annoyed when she asked for my address just to find out that I didn’t know it. (sorry ma’am, I’ve never actually been there). anyways, I think she got a better attitude when I mentioned that I was Ben’s sister, and she realized that me and Trevor were NOT the parents. :-) I needed Ben’s Social Security number, and since I had jumped right in the car after coming back from ropes, (still stinky from sweat and in my tennis shoes, not my preferred footwear of flip flops) I of course didn’t have my cell phone. But, all was well, Trev let me use his to call Mom and get all the info I needed to sign Ben in.
After all of that, we were escorted into a room, where a nurse who looked just like a Veggie Tales character came in and took care of the basics. While we were waiting for the doctor, Ben kept stroking his swollen arm and commenting on the amount of “muscle” he had, and making plans for all of camp to sign his cast. Trevor said he’d sign it as “your personal ambulance driver”. After awhile the doctor came in and had a look, then the x-ray guy took Ben back, then the doctor came back and told us that Ben would most likely need surgery and that we should bring him in to Marquette General Hospital because he didn’t know everything about broken elbows, but it looked like a double fracture.
So, we hopped back in the car and drove to the hospital, where the doctor looked at the x-rays and said that the first doctor didn’t know what he was talking about, the elbow was fractured, but just once, and that Ben would need a cast, but not surgery (to this news Ben pumped his good arm in the air and happily said “yes!”). Since the arm was still swollen (or rather, as Ben would remind us “muscular”) they would send him home to MD in a splint.
By then it was about 8pm, we had left camp around 3:30, so we had missed dinner. But, all was well, after swinging by Walgreens to get some pain meds (thank goodness for Trevor again, I of course didn’t have any money and apparently the prescription was too low for insurance to cover, so Trev took care of it, I still have to pay him back come to think of it :-) we made a stop at the all wonderful Jilberts, the supplier of all camps dairy and (most importantly) ice cream!! After getting our “dinner” (a double scoop each) we headed back to camp in time for devos (aka, 10:30)
Even though it stinks that it happened to Benj that he broke his elbow, I’m still kinda glad, I got to spend a lot of time with him (and since both our love languages are Quality Time, I think we were both pretty happy) and we got to have a great memory together. I’m also so thankful for Trevor, he is going to school for nursing so whenever Ben had a question or I didn’t know what the doctors were talking bout, he would explain it to us. He also let us use up a lot of minutes on his phone to talk to both Mom and Dad, and he kept everything light, joking with the doctors and making sure Ben was having a fun time.
So far as I know now Ben is doing well, still doesn’t have the cast, but he says “soon”.
Anyways, fun times! :-)