One Broken Elbow Later.....

Well, here is the story of (little) R's broken arm! We were at the Jump Yard place in Indianapolis with my sister and her 4 kiddos. We had been there about 10 minutes when someone heard R crying and I went over to see if he was okay. He originally said he hurt his finger. I kissed it and thought he would be on his way, he wasn't truly crying very hard. Then he said his elbow hurt. So I gave that a sugar as well and told him to go and play. He sauntered around and my mom scooped him up for some loves. She was rubbing his arm when she felt a "bump". She told me to feel it and as I extended his arm, the "bump" (bone) moved. Uh... I asked my sister to feel it and she agreed that he needed to go to the Urgent Care. So we left the other 7 children with my mom and my sister, R, A and myself left. After some x-rays it was determined that he did break his elbow and that he might even need surgery! WHAT?! I had gotten a hold of Ryan by this point, but he was in a classified room and could not take his cell phone with him. They wanted to transport Ridge via ambulance, but I insisted that I take him to the ER myself. I was told there would be a Pediatric Orthopedist there to see R's case.

I got the other kids settled at my sisters house and then drove R to the ER. After about 20 minutes Ryan arrived and the Ped. Ortho followed him into the room. He explained what happened and what was going to be done. R apparently had one of the top 3 breaks they DON'T want to see. It hit a joint and growth plate. Not good!!! The surgery was going to be placing 2 pins in R's arm to hold the bone in place and to help is grow back together. He wasn't sure at the time if they were going to have to make an incision or go through the skin with the pins. Luckily, they were able to drill a hole and insert the pins - no incision! Yay - one to our advantage! Then they put a full arm cast on him and we were able to take him home that night!


Bigger shirts fit over his cast the best!

Please, please pray with us for the exact healing of R's elbow. If it doesn't heal just right, then there could be serious issues following. He has to be in his cast for 6 weeks and then they will remove the pins and cast. We are fortunate enough to get to go back to the same Ortho Dr. that inserted the pins. I was totally confident of his knowledge and ability with my little guy! Dr. Kramer is his name, please pray that he has steady hands when he removes the pins on June 1st!

R has adapted very well to the whole thing. As you can see, it is his right hand, which means he has to do everything else with his left, including eating. We have had a few glasses of spilled milk, however, he is doing quite well for a 3-year old! Did I mention that R is not supposed to run, bump, or fall on his elbow during the next 5 weeks? Did I also mention that he is 3 years old?! :) He is supposed to wear his sling when he is up and around. After much tweaking - we think we have it mastered to stay in place!!!

R had unfortunately missed out on a few things that the other kids have gotten to do due to injury! He wasn't able to play with his cousins the last half of the trip because of him not running or bumping it. He also wasn't able to swim in the pool at the hotel on the way home - however, Mommy took him for his very own scoop of ice cream, so that made up for it!

Relaxing like nothing has ever happened! :) Thanks for praying for his recovery!