Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Kaden Breaks His Arm

We officially have the first broken bone in the family! Kaden broke his arm the day before yesterday when he fell off his brand-new Spiderman bike in the driveway. I saw him fall, and it didn't look like a bad fall. When I asked him where it hurt, he pointed to his arm, and asked, "Is it bleeding? Is it bleeding??" I pulled up his sleeve, no blood, no scratches, so I told him to brush it off, and get back on the bike. He did, just to ride it into the garage, but then he spent the rest of the day moping around, and wanting me to hold him. At bedtime we had a hard time getting him into his pajama shirt, but I just thought he was overtired and fussy.

The next morning, as I was putting his shirt on, he was complaining about it being "Owie on my arm." I checked it, decided it might be a little bit swollen, noticed he didn't really want me to touch it or bend his arm at all. I kept an eye on him for the next little while, and he wasn't using that hand or arm at all. So I made an appointment and went in. The Dr. tried turning his hand palm up, and when Kaden resisted, he referred us for an X-ray. Kaden was Super-brave at the X-ray because they had to twist his arm all the way palm-up to get the picture they wanted. He never cried or even whined. I could just feel him all tensed up on my lap. The radiologist came out to make sure I was planning to go right back up to the Dr. office because "he couldn't let us go home." Sure enough - Kaden's arm was broken!




The casting went really well - Kaden wanted green. The Dr. said that 2 year olds are little Houdinis when it comes to keeping a cast on, but that he would just do the half-arm cast unless Kaden wiggled out of it. I felt so bad for my little trooper! I felt like I should have known something was wrong the day it happened, and he wouldn't have had to be in so much pain. Poor little guy.

To add to the fun of getting X-rays and a cast for Kaden yesterday, Kole got pink-eye. Luckily, I found some left-over medicine that my PA friend told me I could go ahead and use to get rid of it. Unluckily, that ran out after the second dose.

I also have to say that I could not have made it through the day at all without my friend Heather. She was nice enough to watch my 3 other kids while I dealt with Kaden, then she let us stay over at her house for dinner too! Thank you, thank you Heather!
SO, as I was writing this blog, the Dr. called and said that he was up all night thinking about Kaden and really thought that we should have done a full arm cast. He said I could come right in to have it done, so now Kaden has a full arm cast that is half green/half black. The Doc said this would prevent him re-injuring it if he were to fall on it a few weeks down the road. He was also nice enough to write me a new prescription for Kole's eyes since I was there anyway. Whew!