The First One to Bite the Dust

Somewhere in the back of my mind I knew this day would come....

Wednesday afternoon was supposed to be a simple day of grocery shopping before picking up Ben from school. Erik took off running down the hall at our apartments testing his "speedy shoes" like he always does. Unfortunately this time he only made it half-way to the elevator before catching his toe and crashing to the floor. I knew immediately by the look on his face that he had really hurt himself. I caught up to him (waddling with my big belly of course) and asked him what hurt. I couldn't tell what had hit first...his chin? his knee?

"My hand hurts at the bending part," he said, which translates to "wrist."

So we walked back down the hall to the apartment and scrapped the plans for grocery shopping. Nothing looked obviously broken at the time, and I was very relieved. I tried to have him hold his wrist on a bag of peas, but that didn't go over too well. I gave him lots of sympathy and transferred him to my bed because he wanted me to lay down by him. He fell asleep after about twenty minutes.
Shaun looked at it when he got home and wrapped it in an ace bandage for the night. He was wiggling his fingers fine, but not using it for anything weight-bearing. Thursday morning he was still very sore, and kept saying "don't squeeze my arm." (which we weren't) and "it hurts right there...so don't touch it." Shaun noticed that it looked a bit angulated through the ace wrap, so we decided to call for a Dr. appointment to get an x-ray. I was still in denial that it was actually truly broken, but I wanted to be sure. Luckily we were able to get in in the morning, and the Dr. took one look and said "its broken." We went across the hall for an x-ray, then back to the Dr. for a referral to an orthopedist (ironic, since Shaun will be an orthopedic PA in a few months!!). So we drove two blocks down the road, where we were seen right away by the orthopedist for a cast. No waiting anywhere!!

Green was not available, so Erik picked red for his cast. He was so brave and cooperative the whole time! He explained to the nurse that he was running "250 miles per hour with his speedy shoes." They gave him a big red Tootsie Pop sucker at the orthopedist's office, and he was so excited. He kept talking about how big it was and asking if it was a lollipop. He even generously insisted that Shaun and I taste it.

He asked us to take the cast off a few times after we got home, but quickly got used to the idea that it is there to stay for a while. By day two he was running and dancing with it like nothing had happened, even banging it against the wall a bit to show us how hard it is. And, he's testing his speedy shoes in the hallway again! Now I'm worried about the other arm!