...At Least His Heart Wasn't Broken

Valentines Day, a day full of chocolates, candy, heartfelt sentiments, cheesy sayings, school Valentines exchanges, and a trip to the emergency room. Wait, what?

You heard right...I said a trip to the emergency room.

My Valentines Day consisted of going into Caleb's class and helping with his class Valentine's party. We had a great time playing games and enjoying the chocolate fountain. Everyone loved the game I taught them where you shoot cotton swabs out of drinking straws at paper hearts. What child doesn't like a good flying projectile? Caleb and I had fun shooting at each other and then I went home, after saying goodbye to my smiling, chocolate-stained son. An hour later as I was driving into the school to bring him home, I got a call.

"Mrs. Miller? This is the office, I'm calling to say that Caleb is resting comfortably in the nurse's office and that he's fine but it looks like he has broken his arm."
Audible gasp, followed by, "I'll be inside in two seconds."
I walked into the office where the receptionist lead me back to where Caleb was sitting on an examination table, looking perfectly calm and even a little bored.

"Hey Mom."

So here's what went down: Caleb was sitting on a scoop chair that is on the floor checking out his Valentines haul, when apparently boys started to sit on him. This is a common occurrence in the class, anyone who sits in the scoop chair will run the risk of having any number of people pile on. However, on this day, he was holding his arm out at a weird angle when the final boy sat on him. He said it didn't hurt, it just felt weird. He calmly told everyone to get off of him and when they saw his arm bent at an unnatural angle, the kids started getting excited.

Caleb went over to his teacher and held up his arm, "I think something happened to my arm." The teacher reacted so calmly that Caleb thought he was imagining things for a moment. She told the students to calm down and took him to the office.

I called the pediatrician and they advised me to go to the emergency room. While this was happening, the teacher came in with half of the class in tow. She was holding them back and keeping them from coming into the infirmary.

Kids: Is he crying?
Mrs. D: No, he's not crying?
Kids: Are you sure? Check his eyes. Are their tears in his eyes?
Mrs. D: No he's not crying, in fact he's laughing because you are being so silly.

I have to admit, seeing his arm bent at a wonky angle like that is a little icky. The receptionist wrapped up his arm and gave him a baggie full of ice and we headed toward the hospital.
I did not make him carry his backpack.

When we got to the ER, were were admitted in immediately. (Note to self: the ER is really quiet in the afternoon--that is the time to go, if you have any say in the matter.)

 The nurse was fussing with him and starting an i.v. when the doctor came in. He asked Caleb on a scale of 1 to 10, with ten being unbearable, what would he rank his pain.

Caleb shrugged his shoulders and said, "Um, a two?"

The nurse, the doctor and I all looked at each other and said in unison, "Tough kid." They told him that if any time he needed something for the pain, to tell them. Then they sent us off for x-rays. Here is what we found out:

See how his bone his flipped up in this side angle? That's why his arm swooshes downward.

From this angle, you can't see the position of his bone but you can see where it is broken

Caleb had broken his wrist, across a growth plate. Because of this, the emergency room doctor thought it best that an orthopedic surgeon take care of the situation. Because Caleb had to hold his arm in some awkward positions to take the xrays, he started to feel uncomfortable. The nurse gave him a bit of morphine in his i.v., which helped with the pain.

The one thing that Caleb was really worried about was how much it would hurt when they would as he put it, "pop my arm back into place." When the orthopedic surgeon came in, he looked at Caleb's x-rays and explained to him that they will give him some anesthesia (Propofol) to knock him out completely so he won't feel or remember a thing. When they made sure he was completely under, they put his arm in a machine called a C-Arm to take some more x-rays.

x-ray before his bone is realigned.

Then he took Caleb's arm and twisted and yanked on it with considerable force. Ick. Then they wrapped his arm in a splint. (Getting a cast was three days away because the swelling needed to go down.) After that was done, all I could say was, "I'm glad you completely knocked him out for that."

All bones, skin and muscles exactly where they should  be.

Top view.

The hardest thing for me was watching him go under. Watching his eyes roll back while the anesthesiologist was holding his head still really hurt my heart. Why is that? I just felt really helpless. We couldn't go home until he was completely conscious so I had to wait for about thirty highly entertaining minutes.

Some of my favorite exchanges were:
Me: Caleb, it's time to wake up.
C: No! I'm getting a splint!

Me: Buddy, I'm so proud of you, you did so well!
C: I'm more proud of you, you did well-er.

C: What's my middle name?
Me: Caleb (which it is)
C: No it's not! That's my first name. What's my middle name?
Me: What do you think it is?
C: I don't know
Me: How about Jack (which it is not)?
C: Jack? Ok.

C: Can you buy some of that medicine at the store that looks like milk (Propofol)? it makes me feel like I'm home. I like it.

And my favorite:
C: You are the best mom that I've ever had! (he said this with tears running down his face. This is the only time tears were shed.)
HAPPY VALENTINES TO ME!!

When we got home three hours later, there were several boys who came by to see how he was doing. Cupcakes, cookies, well wishes and jokes were heaped upon him. Add to that the huge fuss his sisters made about him and you get a kid who is little uncomfortable with all the attention (but I think he loved it).

We felt bad for the boy that broke Caleb's wrist, he came by with his dad and he was close to tears, he felt so bad. He gave Caleb a note apologizing for his "bad choices and bad example," and "I wish I was in that chair and not you,". We told him we knew it was a freak accident and that it was completely unintentional. After he left, Caleb said, "I feel worse for Trace than for me."

Three days later, he went to get a cast. Should he get a green one or a blue one? Decisions, decisions. In the end, he chose a blue one. Because the break was across a growth plate, the cast went up to nearly his armpit, to be sure that it was completly stable to heal properly. He was bummed out about that until the doctor explained that if it didn't heal properly, they would have to cut the bone and reset it. With that explained, Caleb was totally fine with the big cast.

He has to wear the big cast for two weeks and after that, they will put a shorter cast on him for another three weeks. The girls and I offered to decorate it with crystals or some other sort of bling --he politely declined.

Caleb is in the middle of his basketball season and he really enjoys it, so he and his team are really disappointed that he is out for the season.

He is not however, disappointed that his piano lessons are on hiatus.

This is our first experience with a broken bone. Pretty amazing considering that I had girls doing flips ten feet off the ground and walking across stair wells that have a fifteen foot drop.

I think we all handled it pretty well.

Getting an xray to make sure everything was still lined up. What a sweet kid! I heart him.