This afternoon, Samuel was outside playing with a friend. At one point, he came in to get a bandaid for a scrape on his arm but he went back outside after that, so I didn't think much of it. After all, he's a boy. He gets scrapes & scratches on a daily basis. We should own stock in the bandaid company. He's your typical almost-9-yr old boy.
We've discovered that he tends to be made of steel when friends are around but the minute they walk away, he falls apart & you see that he's really hurt himself. You know...that macho thing. Can't look like a weenie in front of your friend.
After the neighbor boy left & he was inside (about 5:45pm), he totally fell apart holding his arm saying that it hurt. It was then that I was looking at some pictures I took of them playing & realized that he was holding that arm funny in all the pictures, like he was sort of protecting it. We started inspecting his arm & realized that right where he got the scrape, there is a knot under it (possibly bone?). When you try to press on it at all, he winces & draws his arm back & squeals. When we asked how he scraped it, he explained that he had fallen across the castle rocks we have around our trees to create a planter box sort of thing. (I'm not sure of the official landscaping name for it. Here's a picture to give you an idea of what I'm talking about.)
Larry asked him to squeeze his hand, press against his hand, etc & he can't (or won't?) do any of that. He ate dinner tonight with his left hand (actually, Sarah fed him most of his supper!). He kept his right arm propped on an icepack. He took a bath afterward & then returned to the couch where we propped him up with a pillow & icepack. It is bruised & a little swollen looking, so we're wondering if he may've actually broken a bone.
Since Larry used to be a paramedic, he's our expert on things like this. He said that if there was a bone sticking out or his arm was bending in the middle or something real obvious like that, we'd definately make a trip to the ER tonight. However, since we're not 100% sure that it's broken, we are going to wait. If we did go to the ER & found out that it's broken, all they'd do is splint it & refer us to an orthopedist in a day or two. If we wait til morning, see the pediatrician for an Xray & it's broken, he'll splint it and refer us to an orthopedist in a day or two. (See a pattern there?) Considering that it costs us $100 for an ER visit & $30 for a pedi office visit, it's worth waiting til morning. Don't get me wrong...we're not being cruel, just realistic. If he was sobbing from the pain tonight, we wouldn't make him wait til morning, but right now he only winces & cries if you mess with it, so there's a chance that he just bruised it real bad.
I guess we'll see in the morning!
3 comments:
Awww that sucks, and so close to the elbow I hear that is one horrible bone to break. I hope it's not broken and it much better in the morning! At least if it's broken it's not 100 degrees out yet having a cast on would suck in that kind of weather.
Bummer. He is the "man of steel". Bless his little heart. Hope it turns out okay. I am sure you will give us an update. Correct?
First of all, the song that was playing when I got on here, a Barlowgirl song, is one of my all time favorites! I blare it sometimes, and I'm sure my neighbors get an earful of my singing, but no one has complained yet. ;o) Anyway, I fell down the stairs when I was about 12 and I had no bend or anything, but my wrist was killing me and it was definitely swollen and bruised. It turned out to be a hairline fracture, but they did actually cast it for maybe four weeks. My niece fell off the trampoline once and broke that bone in her elbow. She, too had to have a cast all the way around her elbow. If he did break it that far up, I'm assuming he'd have to have that elbow cast, too. Let me be the first to tell you that after not bending your elbow for 4-6 weeks, and the first thing the doctor wants you to do when your cast is off is bend your elbow, the pain is almost worse than the actual break! A forewarning, just in case. Little boys are something else. Even when no one teaches them "not to cry," they still manage to think it is uncool. ;)
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