Broken Arm

I mentioned yesterday that my son broke his arm. Here's what happened.

My first grader was playing on the playground at school on Thursday. He was on the platform for the slide and fell backwards. He put his arms behind him to try and break his fall. It worked. He landed on his right arm and it broke.

He went to the nurse and was crying hysterically. She called and left a message on my cell phone asking me to come pick him up. She said that "it is probably nothing, but he hurt his elbow and won't stop crying. I think you should take a look at it." I called her back within 5 minutes and left a message saying that I was on my way to pick up my 5 year old at preschool and that I would be there as soon as I could. The school nurse called me back and this time we actually spoke. She told me that my son calmed down and said he was feeling better and he wanted to go back to class. So she let him go.

I thought that meant he was ok. That he might have been a little emotional earlier. Maybe the nurse was exaggerating how much my son was actually crying.

I met my son at the bus stop. When we got to the house, he went straight to the couch and wanted a blanket. This is very unusual for my son. I took his temperature. It was 99.0, just a little high. After an hour my son started saying that his arm hurt. I thought he was faking. He had been home for an hour and this was the first he said anything about his arm hurting. I decided to take a look. I tried to take off his shirt. He screamed. You know that kind of scream. The scream that has a certain pitch that lets moms know when something is really wrong.

I pushed up his sleeve and saw it very swollen. It didn't look right. I knew something was really wrong. I found a neighbor who would take my 5 year old. I called my husband and let him know that I was taking our son to the ER.

My 6 year old is very active. He didn't want to wait in the ER. He didn't want to lay on the bed. He started rolling around and trying to push the doctor's stool around the room. Every time his arm moved he cried. But he still kept moving. Frustrating!

We did read some books and then went for the x-ray. Yup, it's broken. Finally they gave him some pain medicine. He got all goofy and started making animal noises for me to guess which animal he was. It was cute. He was feeling better. He was bored and he wanted to go home. He didn't want to wait anymore. I have a feeling this is similar to what happened at the nurse's office at school. He was bored and tired of waiting for me so he asked to go back to class with his friends. I still can't believe the nurse let him!

We got home after 8pm that night. Then we had dinner and I still had to pick up the prescription of pain medicine that the ER doctor had prescribed. It was a late night to say the least.

Now my 6 year old has a splint and a sling. He hates it. He has an appointment on Tuesday morning to get the cast put on.

This isn't his first broken bone. He broke his leg when he was 2. I just hope this is the last.

A Little Stressed???

Last night was a lot of fun. Yes, that is sarcasm you hear. After my kids took about 40 minutes to eat a simple dinner, I started their bath. My 6 year got undressed and went right in the tub. The 4 year old put his foot in the water and then changed his mind. He said it was too hot. So he sat on the edge of the tub and fell backwards. He landed on his ear on the footstool in the bathroom. He was crying. a. lot.

I knew immediately that this was no ordinary fall. The blood gushing on the bathroom rug helped me figure that out, and the screams and cries too. I tried to get a look at his ear, but there was too much blood. I told my older son to hurry and get washed. I called my neighbor. She couldn't hear my talking, but she could hear the screaming and knew something was wrong. She's a great neighbor! She took my 6 year old and I rushed the 4 year old to the ER. (This is the same neighbor who has been known to call me around 8 or 9 at night and tell me to meet her at the end of the driveway with my wine glass. After that, I told my husband that we are never going to move.)

At the ER they "glued" my son's ear back on. It wasn't completely off. The front was still attached. Today you can't tell anything was wrong if you saw him from the front, but a look from the back and he might be mistaken for Frankenstein. It's a good thing he can't see it himself. His older brother is very freaked out about it. The older brother said, "I thought they were going to fix his ear at the hospital? Why does it still look like that?"

Of course this drama is not helping to reduce my stress and ease my migraines. I've had a headache since about dinner time last night. Did I mention that my in-laws are coming from Japan this weekend? And Sunday is my husband's 40th birthday? Yeah, I might have a few things that I need to get done this week.

Today I did manage to get some more cleaning done. I cleaned out the fridge. I took everything off the shelves and cleaned them in the sink. I was a little afraid to take out the shelves. They're glass and what if I break one? The only thing worse than dirty shelves in the fridge when your in-laws come is having broken shelves in the fridge :S Yeah, that might be as embarrassing as not watching your son so that he falls and almost slices his ear off!

You know what's nice about having other mom friends? They can all relate to how it feels when your kid gets hurt. Everyone has sympathetic story about what happened when her kids got hurt and ended up at the E.R. Feel free to share yours here! And one day I'll have to tell you about a crazy mom who let her 2 year old his break his leg. Yup, that would be me. But not the same son, the older brother. I think one ER story per day meets the quota, so that will have to wait.

So please, no one make a mess in my house until after the in-laws leave. And no one else get hurt. And no more headaches. And no more bills. And no more rain. And I could go on and on... Where is that magic wand when you need one????