Injuries

So we've had a little bit of a rough time the last couple weeks. The boys were very emotional the first week or two we were here. The tiniest things would set them off and Eli was very angry and Connor was very tantrum-y. It was lots of fun. I expected this, because it happened to Eli last time we moved (and lasted for months). Moving is just hard on everyone, even three and five year-olds.

Anyway, this is just to preface my story. So the 2nd week we were all here, Eli started complaining that his knee was really hurting him. He was having a lot of trouble moving his right leg. He could either keep it straight and hobble around or keep it bent and crawl around, but anything in between resulted in tears and screaming. Now the tears and screaming were not that unusual because of the very low fuse Eli had at that time so I didn't think too much of it. However, this went on for a few days and finally I called our pediatrician in Oregon who said I should probably take him in to get it checked out. So on Friday (week and a half ago) I took him in and they did an xray and found nothing. Eventually it got better and he's back to normal now, but it was a good week or so of him not using it. I guess he just pulled a muscle or something? I honestly don't know.

This was what I saw as soon as we got to the doctor that afternoon. I probably should have just turned around and headed back home...

So that was Friday...then the next Monday we were playing at the park and Connor fell off a step thing at the playground and fell on his arm. The kid plays hard and he falls a lot, so this was nothing crazy. He immediately erupted in tears and screaming and I consoled him and told him it was okay and to be tough, etc. etc. Connor likes to wail and say things like "It hurts so so so so bad!" for every tiny little scrape so again I didn't think too much of it. However, it kept hurting him and he kept it bent against his body all the time. The last thing I wanted to do was spend hours and $$ at the doctor again for nothing, so I was not very eager to take him in. The next day it was still really bothering him and his wrist and hand were swollen. I thought maybe he sprained his wrist, since he seemed to have all those symptoms, so I gave him Ibuprofen and wrapped it in an ace bandage most of the time. Finally on Thursday, we realized it was possibly broken. He still wasn't using it at all and we were looking at it and he was able to bend his wrist without any pain, but when we touched his arm it really hurt. So I knew at that point it wasn't his wrist. Oops.

So being the awesome mom I am, I finally took him to the doctor on Friday, almost 4 days after the incident. The pediatrician thought it was most likely a fracture and she got us an appointment with the orthopedist to get an xray and (most likely) cast. So several hours later....sure enough, he had a "buckle fracture" on both the ulna and the radius. Poor guy! They said it's very easy to heal for kids and not an uncommon injury. Their bones are so soft that when they fall with large impact, the bone can compress a bit, so on the xray you just saw two little bumps, one on each side, on both bones where it "buckled". He got to pick out his color and they quickly did a little cast for him! We were hoping he could do the splint, but his little arm was too small for even the smallest size. Luckily, it's only a half-arm cast and he only has to have it on for three weeks. But unfortunately, two of those weeks were going to be swimming lessons. :( So Eli is still doing them, but Connor has to sit and watch instead of join in.

Connor is doing amazingly well though. He still is as active as ever and it really hasn't slowed him down a bit. He loves showing it off to people and he says his arm is "strong like Hercules!" I told him he probably shouldn't use it as a shield when "sword fighting" with Eli though, like he started to the first day. And I should mention, this week has been MUCH better. Everyone seems to be settling in and finding their peace with our new life here.