My two-and-half year old son broke his arm last night. He and I were running across the parking lot at McDonald’s because a kind lady had stopped and motioned us across in front of her car. I was holding his left hand when he tripped. His hand slipped out on mine and he hit the blacktop kind of hard.
Of course the little guy was crying when I picked him up and moved onto the sidewalk. Normally he stops crying after about minute or so after a tumble, but this time he wouldn’t stop. My first suspicion that something wasn’t quite right.
We went into the restroom to wash off his hand. His right hand was a little dirty with a slight scuff from attempting to break his fall. He wasn’t moving his hand in the right manner. Suspicion number two. I picked him up and sat him down on the counter to dry his hands and brush the hair back off his forehead. His right fore arm didn’t look right. It had started to swell on the outside edge, but it also looked bent. Oh my gosh! His arm was slightly bowed outward. I compared it to the other arm. Yup, it was bent. Suspicion number three!
I gently gripped his fore arm. He didn’t complain too much. I could feel the warmth of the swelling, but nothing felt broke. It still looked bent. Then I moved his right thumb, no problem. Index finger, a little whine. Middle finger, ouch! Suspicion number four—time to call the wife and take the poor lad to the emergency room. Bless my wife. She was the one that sat there in the emergency room with him and our five-month old baby for five hours while I held down the home front with our other two children. Fortunately, the injury never really seemed to slow down the little trooper. He managed to play and talk with nearly everyone in the waiting room.
The emergency room doctor put his arm in a splint and sent them home. We saw an orthopedic doctor this afternoon hopefully to put his arm in a cast. Well, to keep up the family tradition of not having a simple medical problem with a simple medical solution, having a bent bone is not a normal thing, even in someone so young. Bones usually break. As it turned out, the ulna, the outer fore arm bone, was broken, and the radius, the inner fore arm bone, was bent. No cast yet.
Tomorrow morning, the poor lad will have an outpatient procedure done. They will put him under, and try to re-bend the arm in the opposite direction. The hope is that the bent bone will break so that it can be set straight. If it does not break, they will straighten the bone as much as possible. As he grows over the next couple years, nature will straighten most of it out on its own.
I pray that the procedure is a success and that God will heal my son through the doctors and nurses. I hope his pain is minimized and the healing process is speedy.
I wish a kiss from mom or dad on this hurt would heal this wound.