On Sunday night after dinner, Scot took the girls out in the backyard to play while I cleaned up the kitchen. Soon after, I heard Reese start wailing for a few minutes - apparently she had fallen off the ladder to the slide. Scot looked her over closely but didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. She stopped crying after while but then was pretty subdued for awhile (which is a little out of character for her!). But we didn't think too much of it - I held Reese in a chair for about 15 minutes while we watched Ava and Scot play bocce ball. Then I decided to take her inside for a bath - she loves baths and I thought it would make her feel better. But she cried quite a bit during the bath, which isn't normal for her, yet she didn't seem to be crying about anything particular. So, figuring she was just tired or teething (she had really been pretty whiny all weekend), I took her out of the tub and got her ready for bed. It wasn't until I finally got her in her pajamas and started reading with her, that she grimaced when she tried using her right arm. She kept trying to turn the pages of the book with her right arm, but then would look at it and start whimpering, and then use her left arm instead. So, now it finally sinks in for me (it sure would have been easier if she could have told me this an hour ago!) - something is wrong with her right arm. I called Scot in at this time and he took a look and felt her forearm - you could feel a little protusion and there was a fair amount of swelling. After a few phone calls with nurses, she and I were off to the ER!
The ER at Woodwinds Hospital is not generally very busy, so we were seen right away by a nurse who took some initial notes and then ordered xrays right away to get things moving along. Not long after that, we were in an exam room and seen by the ER pediatrician. We got the xrays taken and it didn't take long before the doctor was back in the room confirming our suspicions. She had fractured both bones in her forearm and also the bone in her wrist. My poor baby! He put her in a splint, gave us a reference for an orthopaedist, and sent us on our way. We were in and out of there in less than 2 hours.
So, the first night was really challenging - she seemed to be in a lot of pain and bewildered by the splint on her arm. Scot and I took turns consoling her every couple of hours when she would wake up and start wailing. At one point, I gave up and made a little bed on the floor next to her crib and slept there the rest of the night. I ended up taking the day off of work so she could stay at home and get used to her new predicament with her mommy.
But Monday was still Ava's first day of preschool - so we had to rally and get ready for that. The drop-off went great (more on that later) - on our way home we stopped at the grocery store for a few things, and then when we got home I called to see if we could get in to see the orthopaedist - they were able to get us in in 15 minutes! So, we piled back in the car and went. The doctor there looked at the xray and confirmed that she needed a long arm cast for 4 weeks - at this age, their bones do a really great job of healing quickly and he said you wouldn't even notice the breaks on an xray in a year's time. So, thankfully no surgery or other tweaking was necessary - just the inconvenience of a cast for a month. It didn't take long for the cast to be set (she picked "puwple" and let me reiterate that it has nothing to do with the Vikings), though that was certainly the most challenging part of the prior 18 hours. Then we were back in the car with time to spare before we had to go pick up Ava from preschool. All that in 3 hours time!
So far, she has adapted quite well - the cast certainly hasn't slowed her down AT ALL. She is still running around and climbing up stairs (and even the at-fault ladder). We've been giving her pain medication quite regularly - it's hard to tell if it really hurts her or not, though I'm sure it is annoying for her more than anything. The worst times for her seem to be when she wakes up from either a nap or in the morning - I imagine because the pain meds have worn off and she is thinking, "What is this thing still doing on my arm - I want it off! I think it takes a little bit of time to readjust to her limitations.
The initial splint applied on Sunday night
The plaster cast!
