Our July 4th weekend

Not exactly the fun filled, pool playing weekend we had planned for I suppose but at least we got to spend a lot of time together. I woke up Friday morning in a funk. I had a migraine, was achy all over and just generally blah. I called T and bitched and moaned for half an hour about how I felt like crap. He eventually got the hint and came home to watch the boys so that I could rest. I ended up deciding to take a hot bath so I could try to relax .

About the time I got the tub filled up, got just the right amount of my yummy lavender bath salts in, and got in to soak, T came in with a crying D on his arm. He proceeded to tell me that he has been crying for about twenty minutes and he can't get him to stop. If you know D, thats not normal. He is a tough little guy who almost never actually sheds tears. This time though, he had huge crocodile tears streaming down his face and he immediately shimmied down his daddy and came over to the edge of the tub reaching for me. I noticed immediately that his left arm was hanging limp at his side. Oh, shit. I asked T what had happened and he told me that he had been playing with K in the floor and D was playing behind him and he had just started crying. He had no idea what happened. When I pointed out his arm, T said “Yeah, I noticed. Do you think he hurt it?”. Um, yeah.

(Ok, heres a little backstory. Last summer, when I was about 8 months pregnant with K, I was at a store with D and when we went to leave, he had a typical toddler fit and tried to throw himself down to the ground. Thing was, we were on the concrete sidewalk, so I tightened my grip on his hand to keep him from hitting his head. Bad idea. As soon and he stood up, I knew his elbow was hurt. He started crying and cradling it with his other hand. After a few minutes, he stopped crying but he just wasn't right. I had some experience with nursemaid's elbow and just knew that was it. A couple of ER trips and a few x-rays later, I was right, his elbow was back in place and all was well. Mental note: If your heavy for his age toddler tries to throw himself at the sidewalk, let him.

So, I stripped D naked and pulled him into the tub with me and he melted into my chest and just layed there for a few minutes until he collected himself and stopped crying. I tried for a few minutes to get him to use that arm and he refused. Plus, every time I bent his arm he screamed again. T and I made eye contact and the only thing I said was “Here we go again”. So, T went to work getting the diaper bag ready, I called my mother to come watch K and got me and D dressed. About an hour later, we made it to the ER. Again, a couple of x-rays but this time the doctor said it must have popped back into place before we got there because it all looked normal. No dislocations, no fractures, no nothing. She said it would be sore for a day or so but then he should be back to normal. We headed home relieved but I still thought it seemed strange that he wasn't using it at all still. Last time he started using it within a few minutes of it being popped back in but she was so sure.

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We got home and just lazed around the house for the evening. That night after the boys ate dinner we all snuggled up in our bed. Tommy and I just chilling and talking, D was curled up against my chest with his head on my arm like a little baby and K was rolling and flailing wildly like he does. Eventually T and K wandered off and D fell asleep on my arm. I didn't have the heart to wake wake him but I had not had dinner yet, so I wiggled out and let him sleep. I got K all snuggled up in bed and then went back to bed with D. Tommy volunteered to sleep on the couch so we wouldn't have to wake D.

Saturday we woke up, went grocery shopping for our cookout and just generally futzed around town until nap time, after which we had our cookout and got ready to go watch the fireworks. The whole time, D protected his arm like crazy. He refused to use it for anything and just let it hang at his side. Even while running around with his little friends, waiting for the fireworks to start, he still protected that arm.

Sunday morning he woke up still not using it so back to the ER we went, this time the
whole family in tow. We got seen quickly again and there was a different doctor on duty. He examined D's elbow and said it felt a little swollen still. He ran some blood work to make sure it wasn't getting infected and sent us home with a diagnosis of a bruise in the joint and a referral to see a pediatric orthopedist. As if that wasn't fun enough, they wrapped his arm up in a hard splint and put it in a sling to help stabilize it so it would heal. D was so excited that the sling had dinosaurs on it that he didn't mind the cast at all. The bad thing is though, it means no swimming, no climbing, no rough play, etc. All of which are D's favoritest games. We did,
however, still go to the independence day party we had planned on going to. He ended up having a blast even with one arm three times its size and immobilized.

He has been really good about it considering. He just drags his arm around with him and uses it as a pillow when he is playing in the floor. We have had a little bit of a time keeping him somewhat subdued but I am really not too worried about it. We took the splint off last night after his bath just to check up on it and he seemed to be using his arm a lot more. Still a little stiff but still much better. We put it back on so he wouldn't twist it during his sleep and I took it back off this morning to let him stretch it out some. Hopefully we will get an appointment with the orthopedics doctor today or tomorrow. We are still waiting to hear back.

Fun holiday weekend right?? Or not. Like I said though, at least we got to spend it together of sorts. We still got to do our cookout and hang out with our friends. So I guess, all in all, it was still a hit. Now we just have to get the one armed wonder back to normal so we can hit the pool. I never did get my hot bath.