Well, it has happened. We’ve experienced our first broken bone since having kids. Spencer broke his right forearm on Monday night. We always knew it would be Spencer who broke a bone first, we just didn’t think it would happen so soon!
We had the sister missionaries over for dinner that night and right as they were leaving, the boys were being their normal crazy selves when Spencer climbed up the back of our upholstered chair in the living room, sat on the back, lost his balance, and fell backwards off the chair. John could see immediately that his arm was broken. I’m so grateful it happened when John was home, I don’t know if I would have realized right away it was broken. As soon as John told me, we got him some tylenol (of course, he kind of choked on it as I gave it to him, as he was screaming in pain, but I wanted to get some pain meds in him as soon as possible). We spend the next 30-45 minutes running around trying to make arrangements for Nathan because I wanted both John and I to be with Spencer while we got him taken care of. We were able to take Nathan over to his friend’s house to stay while we took Spencer to the urgent care. We grabbed a few things for Nathan, like his pillow and blanket, to take with him, and quickly stuffed a bag with things for Spencer. Mostly comfort items and some snacks and water. Trying to calm Spencer down at the very beginning was the hardest for me. He was completely inconsolable, screaming and saying “my arm! my arm!”. I hated that I couldn’t make it go away :( It was also a struggle to get him to not move his arm, John and I had to alternate holding him because he kept switching who he wanted comfort from, while the other one ran around getting the bags together.
We got Nathan dropped off at his friend’s and then we took Spencer over to the urgent care just a few minutes away. We were able to get him seen pretty quickly. In a stroke of what I think was inspired genius, I had grabbed my iPad with the Cars movie on it and by the time we were waiting at the urgent care, the tylenol had kicked in, Spencer had calmed down and was content to watch the movie while we waited to be seen and while they looked at his arm. It was a very efficient distraction! At the urgent care we had x-rays done, which showed us that he had broken both bones in his forearm (the radius and the ulna). They splinted and wrapped his arm and then told us that we needed to get to an ER to set the arm and get a cast on him. (The reason being that little kids are more likely to fall on the injury and make it worse) They gave us a phone number and an address of where to go. We called ahead and I’m really glad we did because it was closed! So we went over to another hospital.
And there we waited FIVE HOURS. Spencer was in much better spirits by then. And getting antsy. He was running up and down the hallways in the waiting area, spinning in circles, walking backwards, and John and I are freaking out all the while, trying to make sure he doesn’t fall on his arm. He got bored with Cars on the iPad after the first full run through…
They took his vitals in triage around 11pm but we weren’t seen until after 2 in the morning. And THAT’S when they tell us that they won’t put a cast on him because they give it about 48hours for the swelling to go down. I was way too exhausted and drained to be too angry about it at the time, but now I’m EXTREMELY GRUMPY about how the urgent care people told us to get the cast in the first place (if we hadn’t gone to the ER we would have been home by 9:30-10!!!), and then how we waited FIVE HOURS for them to do basically nothing. And we’ll still get billed for it (if anyone can give me any insight on how to fight that when the bill comes, PLEASE talk to me). They looked at the x-rays, told us they aren’t going to put the cast on, and gave me a phone number for an orthopedics office. Gee, thanks.
We finally rolled out of there after 3am to pick up Nathan. We got home and into bed around 4 in the morning. Thankfully, Nathan had fallen asleep while at his friend’s so he at least got a better night than the rest of us. Spencer was still up at 7:30 that morning, crazy kid. John stayed home to work, and that was amazingly helpful. Nathan had preschool, so it was nice to have a few hours to try to rest with just Spencer. I don’t know how well it worked, but he got to watch Mater Tales and I tried to rest on the couch with my squirmy boy.
This pretty much sums up Tuesday ;)
It was a very long day, but I think we all coped pretty well considering the circumstances.
On Wednesday I got to have another helper, as John had to get back to work – my brother has been visiting my parents while his wife is touring with the BYU International Folk Dance Ensemble so he drove up for the day to help me out and it was sooooooo wonderful to have some company and an extra pair of hands, and someone to hang out with Nathan because Spencer had his appointment with orthopedics that morning to finally get that cast on. Thankfully, they did not have to set it and they estimate that he will only need the cast for 3 weeks. Yay!
It was funny they tried asking him what his favorite color was (he can’t even say most colors) when they were ready to put the cast on. I told them blue was the only color he could say, so that’s what we went with. We’ve been calling it his ‘blue arm’. You know how you’re not supposed to get the cast wet? On the way home I see Spencer licking and trying to chew on his cast on the way home…oh boy…
I don’t think it bothers him, though he will ask us to ‘open it’ (take it off) when he gets frustrated that he can’t use that arm/hand for different things. But overall, it hasn’t slowed him down one bit! John and I were discussing earlier how grateful we were that it wasn’t his leg that he broke. He gets pretty mad when he can’t use that arm, I can’t even imagine the frustration he’d experience if he couldn’t walk!
My sweet brother brought us a little care package with some treats and some new toy cars for the boys and they loved hanging out with Uncle Jason that day
Watching Mater Tales (yes, again, it’s Spencer’s favorite) with Jason
We’ve received so much help and support this week and I’m so grateful to everyone that has helped and offered to help! Hopefully we won’t have to do this again anytime soon, whew!
