I work at a gym that provides a place for parents to bring their kids in. They can stay there for two hours max, while they workout. This is where I’ve been working since the end of March. You basically be paid to work for three hours, while you color, feed babies and watch Toy Story (or an assortment of other good Disney past-times). It’s never really very exciting unless you get a bad family in, there all the kids never listen to you, or if there’s 50 kids and four people working…woo. The girls I work with are all really nice and funny. Most of them are young mothers, or college students (yay for being the only high school student!) Sometimes on the weekends when we close at 1:00, we’ll go to Carlos O Kelly’s right across the parking lot and get yummy food. I love it!
Usually there are three shifts, but this summer I worked a fourth shift because it was so busy. One day this summer, I was working and playing with this little boy James* who always wants me to tickle him when he’s there. I was tired of tickling him, so I told a couple other kids to tickle him, so I could take a break. I was watching them tickle him, and a girl decided to rescue him, by grabbing his arm and pulling on it. He said “Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, stop.” He didn’t seem hurt, so I looked away to check the room, to make sure nobody was misbehaving, and I looked back, and James was on the ground crying, and cradling his arm. This was the first sign that something was wrong and I went over to him and asked him what was wrong. He said his arm hurt and he wanted his Mommy. I got Jeanine*, the boss of the “daycare.” We both tried to get him to sit up and tell us what was wrong, but he would not move. He was balling so hard, that we could hardly understand what he was saying. Jeanine thought he might’ve broken something, so she hurried and got his mom. I sat there with him, and tried to get him to calm down. It was so scary for me! He was getting really warm, like he got a severe fever, so I blew cool air on him and petted his hair. (It was the most I could think of doing). James begged me to not let “them” take him to the hospital, and all I could promise was that we’d get his mom and make the pain go away. He was staring to get some attention, and kids were stopping to see what had happened to him. Angela* and Betty* were working with Janine and I, and were trying to get the kids away from James, because he needed his room. But, he was unfortunately in the middle of the room, so it was hard to get them to get out of his way. Jeanine came back with James’ mom and another kid’s mom (who was a doctor). James’ mom was amazing; she calmed him down so we could hear what was wrong. The other mom asked me if we had anything to put his arm on so they could transport him without hurting it more. I grabbed a couple wooden blocks that where in a bin and Janine went and got an ice pack because his arm was starting to swell a little. Betty got a towel and Angela tried to get the kids to play. We propped James up onto Jeanine so we could get a better angle at James’ arm. I sat there and held down his legs because he was kicking them so hard I didn’t want him to cause more harm to himself. Angela even had to help me because I couldn’t control those strong little legs! I was so worried that I had let something bad happen to poor James!
After about five minutes, we got James’ arm propped up and Sam* came in from the front desk and picked him up. One of the other mom’s went and got her car to pull it around so she could drive them to the hospital. Once they left (Jeanine went with them) I tried to get all the other kids to play. I was so scared that my legs were literally shaking. One of Jeanine’s daughter’s was crying because she wanted her. So, I took Rachel* out to the front door so we could watch everyone put James in the car. I was so worried about James and his mom. I wanted him to be okay! Jeanine came back and took Rachel. She said that James’ mom would call her later and tell her about what happened.
The next day I worked with Jeanine and she told me that James’ elbow got dislocated! I felt so relieved. Jeanine also told me that his mom said he was acting his normal self later the previous day. I was so happy that he was okay. Two days after the incident, he was even back in the “daycare” acting totally normal. I had been thinking about doing physical therapy when I go to college, and I was thinking specializing in child physical therapy. After that, I am positive I will!
*Names have been changed for the privacy of the gym.
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