Benjamin's Tough Break
Our son Benjamin broke both bones in his left forearm Wednesday evening.
He and Glenda were over at my house having dinner, and Benjamin had gone back and forth from my room a couple of times to get Puffs Plus for his stuffy nose. The last time, he started running back to the kitchen, tripped on an ethernet cord I had running across the doorway on the floor and fell into the hallway wall. The force of the fall completely snapped both bones with such strength that his forearm became bent out of alignment and was noticeably misshapen. We heard the thump of him falling and he immediately started crying and yelled, "my arm!" As soon as he said that I knew something was wrong. I got to him, saw and felt it, and immediately told Glenda and Dad, "his arm is broken." That was at about 5:50 p.m.
At first we took him to the urgent care clinic at his doctor's office where we waited for quite a while. Once the doctors (finally) saw him, they realized how badly the arm was broken and did their best to splint it before having us go down to Children's Mercy hospital. They even took some pictures to show to medical students. The clinic staff were also able to give Benjamin some pain killers and called ahead for us to put the pediatric orthopedist on notice that we were coming to Mercy. On the way to the hospital Benjamin fell asleep in the car.
Once we got into the triage room -- where they do the initial vitals and check the seriousness of an injury -- we were quickly moved through to get Benjamin taken care of. The triage nurse said that the E.R. staff wanted to see him "right now." We got taken for X-rays and then to room "Ortho 2" where we spent the rest of the night.
They got him an I.V. line, told us what they were going to do and then proceeded to fix his arm. Because of the nature of his break, they had to essentially knock him out to put it back into place. The stuff they gave him made his eyes glaze over and he fell into his own little dream world. They had us leave when they were doing the actual work and we took the time then to update family on what was taking place. About 30 minutes later he was done getting fixed and we went back in to see him. While the meds were wearing off he had double vision for a bit. We had to stay in the room for quite a while during his recovery period.
We ended up leaving the hospital shortly after 11:30 p.m. After a brief run to a 24-hour pharmacy for his pain meds and picking up Glenda's car, we took our baby home.
He's with his grandma and grandpa today. Glenda and I both needed to go to work today, so it's been a bit tough. He'll be fine though. In six weeks he should get the cast off and be pretty much back to his normal self.
Benjamin is quite the trooper. I figured seeing his arm misshapen like it was would have made him completely FLIP OUT, but he did really well the whole time. Sure, it hurt. Sure, he cried. But all in all he was awesome. I love my son. :-)
I'm kind of kicking myself for not taping that cable down in the first place. There's a lot of "what ifs" in this situation, but Glenda reminds me that it could have happened at her apartment with one of his toys on the floor. I'm honestly not being too hard on myself, but I look at that (now taped-down) cable across the floor and know that my son is in a full arm cast for six weeks because of that. It stings just a bit, you know?
But hey, that's life. We are just grateful that he only hurt his arm and didn't hit is head or break his neck. We're grateful that we have a support system of family and friends to uplift us and pray for a speedy recovery. I'm personally thankful that I have Glenda and Benjamin in my life, even if it means that he ended up tripping over a cord at my house and breaking his arm. He has a dad now and I have a son, and that's pretty cool...plaster cast and all.
Smiles. Oh, and be careful, okay?
He and Glenda were over at my house having dinner, and Benjamin had gone back and forth from my room a couple of times to get Puffs Plus for his stuffy nose. The last time, he started running back to the kitchen, tripped on an ethernet cord I had running across the doorway on the floor and fell into the hallway wall. The force of the fall completely snapped both bones with such strength that his forearm became bent out of alignment and was noticeably misshapen. We heard the thump of him falling and he immediately started crying and yelled, "my arm!" As soon as he said that I knew something was wrong. I got to him, saw and felt it, and immediately told Glenda and Dad, "his arm is broken." That was at about 5:50 p.m.
At first we took him to the urgent care clinic at his doctor's office where we waited for quite a while. Once the doctors (finally) saw him, they realized how badly the arm was broken and did their best to splint it before having us go down to Children's Mercy hospital. They even took some pictures to show to medical students. The clinic staff were also able to give Benjamin some pain killers and called ahead for us to put the pediatric orthopedist on notice that we were coming to Mercy. On the way to the hospital Benjamin fell asleep in the car.
Amazingly enough, things went pretty smoothly at Children's Mercy. When Benjamin woke up he was in much better spirits. The pain had apparently subsided to the point that he wanted to go over to the little table in the waiting room to color with the other kids. We told him that wasn't the best idea. At one point the orthopedist came out and confirmed with us that the arm was misshapen, and he said that he was going to get things hurried along.
Once we got into the triage room -- where they do the initial vitals and check the seriousness of an injury -- we were quickly moved through to get Benjamin taken care of. The triage nurse said that the E.R. staff wanted to see him "right now." We got taken for X-rays and then to room "Ortho 2" where we spent the rest of the night.
They got him an I.V. line, told us what they were going to do and then proceeded to fix his arm. Because of the nature of his break, they had to essentially knock him out to put it back into place. The stuff they gave him made his eyes glaze over and he fell into his own little dream world. They had us leave when they were doing the actual work and we took the time then to update family on what was taking place. About 30 minutes later he was done getting fixed and we went back in to see him. While the meds were wearing off he had double vision for a bit. We had to stay in the room for quite a while during his recovery period.We ended up leaving the hospital shortly after 11:30 p.m. After a brief run to a 24-hour pharmacy for his pain meds and picking up Glenda's car, we took our baby home.
He's with his grandma and grandpa today. Glenda and I both needed to go to work today, so it's been a bit tough. He'll be fine though. In six weeks he should get the cast off and be pretty much back to his normal self.
Benjamin is quite the trooper. I figured seeing his arm misshapen like it was would have made him completely FLIP OUT, but he did really well the whole time. Sure, it hurt. Sure, he cried. But all in all he was awesome. I love my son. :-)
I'm kind of kicking myself for not taping that cable down in the first place. There's a lot of "what ifs" in this situation, but Glenda reminds me that it could have happened at her apartment with one of his toys on the floor. I'm honestly not being too hard on myself, but I look at that (now taped-down) cable across the floor and know that my son is in a full arm cast for six weeks because of that. It stings just a bit, you know?
But hey, that's life. We are just grateful that he only hurt his arm and didn't hit is head or break his neck. We're grateful that we have a support system of family and friends to uplift us and pray for a speedy recovery. I'm personally thankful that I have Glenda and Benjamin in my life, even if it means that he ended up tripping over a cord at my house and breaking his arm. He has a dad now and I have a son, and that's pretty cool...plaster cast and all.
Smiles. Oh, and be careful, okay?
posted by Michael Buttgen - The "Barefoot Voice" at
08:38
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