Boys Will Be Boys

Just when I thought I had this kid rearing figured out, along comes Eli. Being 2 1/2 and seeing the inside of an ER twice gives him the trophy in this house. His first trip to the ER was just 3 months ago to retrieve a sunflower seed he decided to stuff up his nose at 9 o'clock at night, but that's a story in itself. Last night was a little scarier for all of us. Alyssa, Eli, and I were the only ones inside and Eli was playing with his cars on the endtable in the living room. Then all of a sudden I heard him trip and fall (which is not that abnormal), but this time he cried like something was really wrong and he told me his arm hurt. After about 45 minutes of watching him keep his left arm straight down to his side like a soldier, and of him refusing to bend it no matter how much I coaxed him, I decided we needed to pack up and head to the ER. (Why do kids always get sick or hurt after the doctors offices are closed?) So, I called Jeannia and she came over to stay with Alyssa, Michael, and Emily while Matt, Eli, and I drove to St. Joe.

Of course the ER was packed and we had to wait quite awhile. The x-ray techs didn't see anything that looked obviously broken, but we had to wait for a doctor to come see us. He didn't see a break either, but said Eli's elbow was dislocated, which is a common injury in children under 4 years old. So, he twisted Eli's arm out and up and he felt it pop back into place. Eli cried the biggest tears while he was doing it, but as soon as the doctor finished, Eli quite crying. He was such a brave boy. The doctor said most kids begin using the arm as soon as it is popped back into place, but for some it takes awhile longer because they are still afraid if they move it that it will hurt. So he sent us home and said to follow up with our pediatrician in 3 days. We got home around midnight and Eli slept good until 4:30am when the Motrin wore off then he was crying and saying his arm hurt again. After more medicine he finally fell back asleep.

Well, this morning Eli wasn't crying anymore about the pain, but he still didn't want to use his arm and he was complaining that his hand and thumb hurt. He was also holding the wrist of his bad arm with his good hand. I just felt like something wasn't quite right, so I called Dr. Sparks, an orthopedic surgeon I work with, and she said to bring him to her and she would check him out. After having him move his fingers, wrist, and arm in several directions, she discovered that he only hurt when she twisted his arm outward. She said that was why he was holding his arm by the wrist, to keep his arm from turning that direction. She said that although a fracture couldn't be seen on the x-ray, she belived he had one at his radial head (a.k.a. elbow). Because of being so young, Eli still has cartlige where adults have bones and fractures don't show up there in cartlige. So he has a long arm cast for hopefully just a week. Dr. Sparks thinks that will be a long enough rest for it to heal. Eli wanted a purple cast, but I convinced him that red would be cool because he would look like Spider-Man. It's just a coinsidence that both Jeannia's and Terri's wedding colors are red and black. :) I haven't tried his tux jacket on him yet, to see if his arm will fit through it or not. Eli's already telling us that his arm is better and that he wants the cast off. This might be a long week.