So here's the story: The kids were playing downstairs with their Haderlie cousins when I head Caleb start crying. I am usually pretty good at telling the "I fell down but will be fine" cry from the "I fell and I am REALLY hurt" cry. It was definitely leaning toward the latter, he was really hurt. (He had been climbing on the chaise lounge in the basement and he fell off right onto his hand/wrist.)
Of course, it was right at 5:00 on a Friday when this happened. I think I looked at the clock and it read 5:04 or something. I didn't want to rush him to the ER if it wasn't broken so I just snuggled him on the couch and decided to keep an eye on him. For the rest of the day he was really tender with his arm and mostly laid on the couch or a blanket making sure not to put any pressure on it.
The next day though he was back to using it fairly normally. Occasionally he'd mention that it still hurt, so I was watching him closely.
Saturday, he took another BIG fall. He fell and hit his lip, giving him the biggest fat lip I've ever seen.
I watched for signs of a concussion, gave him some ice and watched it. (Poor guy, he was having a rough weekend.)
Sunday night when I was helping him get into his jammies, I grabbed his arm to help guide it through the sleeve and he started sobbing. He basically cried himself to sleep because I had hurt his arm so badly. I felt horribly even though I hadn't been rough with his arm - just a normal pull-through of a sleeve.
Monday morning he woke up with a fever and I felt like that was the final straw. Three strikes and all that 1-hurt arm, 2-fat lip, 3-fever. I called our pediatrician as soon as they opened and scheduled an appointment to take Caleb in to see them. Because of Covid, and because Caleb had a fever, we couldn't go to our normal office we had to go to one of the offices they have converted to care for sick kids who have fevers or other Covid symptoms. Also, of course, we had to wear masks the whole time we were there. (It doesn't look weird now, we've gotten so used to it - but I thought I would mention some of the weird things that Covid has normalized. I'm hopeful that someday we will look back at these pictures and think that it's strange to be wearing a mask again.
The doctor looked at his arm, twisted it several times and agreed that he thought it was probably broken (or at least fractured). He scrounged up some arm splint supplies (they are used to treating colds and flus, etc.. rather than being fully stocked with physical care items due to the Covid separation of their clinics. Caleb thought it was pretty cool. Then he sent us down to the X-ray center of the Mountain Point Hospital to get an X-ray.
Caleb did a great job and was happy and cheerful with everyone that he met. We were chatting with the technician who was preparing our paperwork for the x-ray and ended up talking about baby names with her. Caleb was telling her all about his sibling's names and she had mentioned her daughter's names. Caleb was talking about Lucy and without guile, he said "Lucy is the name of a mom in the Book of Mormon, do you know the Book of Mormon?" (We've recently been reading the Doctrine and Covenants and talking about how Joseph Smith's mom is also named Lucy.) I wish I had taken his lead and said something about how much we love the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants and been able to pull an extra copy from my bag to give to her because she seemed like she wasn't sure exactly what he was talking about. I didn't, I just smoothed over the conversation - but I was so proud of Caleb and his love for the Book of Mormon and willingness to share. It makes me want to be better at sharing with that same guileless manner.
And now for the end result: The X-rays. We got the exrays and went home and a few hours later they called and told us that his arm was NOT broken. Just tender. I can't regret going in, because it could have easily been broken - but I am very grateful that we didn't have to return for a full cast!
Caleb is a champ. He is also daring and energetic. I'm sure that we have broken bones in his future, but until then, we will keep his bones all in one piece, thank you very much.
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