Merrick Breaks His Arm

Wednesday started like any other day.  Jeremy went to work, Merrick went to school, and I went to the preschool.  Just before 10 we were finishing up circle time and my phone rang.  It was Merrick's school.  They said that Merrick had jumped off the play structure and hurt his arm and he was really pale and sweaty.  I told them I would be right there to pick him up and rushed off to get him as quickly as I could.

When Merrick saw me he started to cry a little, but was remarkably calm.  He did look really terrible though and I was not sure what to do next, should I try to get him into the doctor, take him to Urgent Care, or to the ER?  I ultimately decided that I couldn't make the decision by myself in the car with him in the back seat and me in the front.  I called Jeremy but he obviously couldn't tell anything over the phone so I decided to take him home where I could evaluate him and see where we should go from there.  The problem is that when we got home he looked so terrible and I knew that if I somehow managed to get him out of the car I would never be able to get him back in the car to take him anywhere.

We turned around and headed for the hospital and on the way there he started falling asleep which really scared me.  When we finally made it to the hospital they immediately brought him a wheelchair and started giving me hints to prepare me for how bad it was going to be.  The first step was to get his shirt off so they could evaluate him.  Unfortunately he was in so much pain they had to cut it off.  Next came an IV and morphine.  After that we had X-rays and the diagnosis of a Supracondylar fracture.  There was concern not only that part of the bone was significantly displaced, but that the displaced piece of bone was pressing on the nerves.  It was decided that they would splint the arm and we would go to the Children's hospital for surgery.

Our arrival at the  Children's hospital was a bit of a debacle.  We were told to go the children's ER entrance only to be told there that we needed to be at the regular entrance to the children's hospital and we had to walk all around the building.  Then they didn't have a room for us and we were left waiting in one waiting room after another.  Eventually we were given a room to wait for surgery (which ended up being delayed because the surgeon couldn't find us because we weren't in the ER like we were supposed to be!!!!).  In any case, eventually everyone got on the same page and we headed in to surgery.  The surgeon was really great and explained everything very thoroughly.  He even drew us diagrams on the sheets of the bed. (They also gave him a Build-a-Bear doggy, a blanket, and new pj's at the Children's hospital so I guess it wasn't all bad.)

The surgery went off without complication and in five minutes Merrick went from having a significantly displaced bone to everything being in place and having three pins in place to make sure it stayed that way.

After a VERY long day we were finally able to go home about 10:15pm.  We have four weeks ahead of us in our new super cool blue and green cast and then will hopefully be good as new.  Merrick has been a real trooper and feels better each day.