Ouchie

We made our first of many emergency room visits late Friday night with Harrison.  The diagnosis?  A broken arm.  Honestly, I know this is probably to be expected being the Mama of boys, but I just was not ready for this.  Now that I think of it...Are you ever really ready?

Justin left for work that Friday evening and the boys and I headed to Jacksonville for a little shopping.  Our final stop was a quick trip to Publix and then we had planned to head home with a Redbox movie.

We were actually in the parking lot ready to head home when I opened the door to Harrison's side of the truck so he could climb in.  Like our usual buckle-in routine, I had planned to get Brig buckled up and then make my way back around to the other side of the truck and finish buckling Harrison in.  Somehow -- I did not see this go down unfortunately -- while I was buckling Brig in, Harrison was goofing around and fell head-first out of the truck, landing on his left arm.  It was dark out and though he was shaken and he cried about his arm hurting, I decided to take him on home.  All the way home, he cried and cried, much unlike him.  He's a tough kid and by the time we got home, I knew it had to be hurt pretty bad.  He had trouble moving it and after consulting my mother-in-law (with her nearly 30 years of motherhood, we consider her "Dr. Mom"), we decided it would be best to head to the ER and were off to Jacksonville (again) to Wolfson's Hospital. 

Expecting to wait for hours, we got in and were x-rayed right away.  Come to find out, it was a pretty bad break.  One that would require sedation and for the bone to be manually retracted.  With sedation meant an IV.  Considering all the new things that were happening over the course of this hospital visit, he was such a champ!  He got the IV and a little morphine and was succesfully sedated.  We were asked to wait in the waiting room while the orthopedist finished the procedure.  Besides being exhausted, anxiously sitting in a germy, cold waiting room while my baby was back there being "retracted" (ouch) without me was not easy.  Luckily, the procedure was fast and the doctors said he was a trooper.  We got to talk to him and rub him to try to get him to arouse from the anesthesia and had quite a few laughs at his expense at the silliness of him waking up.  After a little nausea and vomiting from the anesthesia, all was well and we could head home.

From the time that Brigdon was born, Harrison has seemed so grown up to me.  I guess since I had this tiny brand new baby for comparison, Harrison seemed so big; no longer the baby.  But seeing him in that hospital bed, he just looked so small and so frail and so pitiful.  I just wanted to curl him up in my lap and hold him.  I cannot imagine being that Mama with a child in the hospital for the long-term.  My heart is heavy at the mere thought.

All in all, it was quite the adventure and not over just yet.  He is in a splinted soft cast until late this week and will have a hard cast placed -- which he is pretty excited over picking out a color -- Mama's a little nervous!  Because of the nature of the break, he'll have weekly orthopedic visits for 4 weeks and then in another 4 weeks (hopefully), the cast will come off. 

It is an "ouchie" for sure!