Party of Three: July 2010

Here is a picture of my sweet baby right after she had her super cool pink cast put on!

This blog post has been a long time in the making, but every time I started to write it I would get upset and put it off. I HATE that my baby got hurt. I HATE that I wasn't fast enough to catch her and keep her from getting hurt. As a parent you want to keep your child safe from harm and pain and when you can't it is hard to accept.

Here is our story:

In the beginning of June, Laurel was coloring at the table in her booster seat like she does every day. I was right next to her getting more paper out of the drawer where I keep the art supplies. Laurel leaned forward to get a marker that had rolled away and fell out of her seat and on to the hardwood floor. I saw it happen and I couldn't grab her in time. It really didn't look like a very bad fall, but she was crying so I picked her up and went to sit down and turn on the TV for her (TV cures all aliments in our house). I knew something was wrong after a minute when she wouldn't stop crying. Laurel is a drama queen and she always cries when she hurts herself, but she always stops really quickly.

I started to think something was wrong with her right arm because she wouldn't move it and was was holding it with her left hand. I called Matt who had taken the dogs to the vet. He was 30 minutes away and told me to just wait until he got home and she was fine (I've called him many times in a panic before). I kept thinking that she was really hurt so I called my dad who is a nurse. He told me it could be broken, fractured, or a bad bone bruise. Matt got home and thought she was fine. I told him that she has NEVER cried for 30 minutes before and she was NOT fine. So we headed to the urgent care. Laurel fell asleep in the car so at least she didn't cry the whole trip.

We got to the urgent care and proceeded to sit and sit and sit. We are still discussing if her arm is hurt. Matt thinks she is okay because she can move her fingers. I think she is not okay because she won't move her arm and (the biggest factor) she has sat in our laps this whole time and not wanted to walk around. She ALWAYS wants to, "go walk around!" Matt did carry her outside for a little bit and the Chick-fil-a across the street had a bouncy house for their kid's night. Laurel kept saying she wanted to go jump even though she wouldn't walk or move her arm. Poor child!

Finally after several hours we get called back. Laurel fights like a wild monkey when they try to X-ray her arm. The nurse tells me it is most likely not broken if she can fight like that. I think, "Lady, you don't know my kid!" She will fight you until the death if you try to hold her down. The doctor comes back after looking at the x-rays and says that is looks like it is not broken, but the radiologist will check it and call us back in the morning. They put an ace bandage on it and send us home.

So we head home. I give Laurel a quick bath, wrap her arm back up, give her some tylenol, and put her to bed. She goes right to sleep and I think everything is okay. But she wakes up every hour ALL night long. In the morning I know something is wrong for sure. All she wants to do is sit and watch TV and she still won't move her arm at all. The radiologist calls and says that her arm IS broken, in two places! I was not surprised at all. My mom intuition had been telling me that all along.

We take her back to urgent care and they put her arm in the a splint and then we go to a specialist who decides she needs a cast. Laurel has been sitting in our laps and not moving much throughout this whole ordeal. The SECOND the cast was on she jumped up and started dancing and acting like her old crazy self. We are very lucky that she did not mind the cast at all. It did not slow her down in the least. She proudly picked out her pink cast and loved to show it off and have people sign it. This was a huge blessing since I envisioned weeks of her crying and begging to have it taken off.

The only issue was her not being able to take her nightly bath. We also couldn't go swimming of course, but I let her watch lots of movies and have picnics in the living room to make up for it. She was so spoiled after the cast came off three weeks later. I've just finally finished weaning her off all the "brave girl treats" she was getting. She also totally regressed on her potty training so I've basically had to start again from square one.

I'm just so grateful that her arm is fine and one day after the cast came off she was using it just like normal again. Here are a few pictures of Laurel's adventures with casty.

This was the second day of having her cast. We were playing animal zoo which is her favorite game.

Showing off her cast before church.

Just playing in the house one rainy day.

More animal zoo.

At Red Lobster. Laurel loved the lobsters.

Laurel with her cotton candy at Sesame Street Live.

At one of her doctor's visits. We learned her cast had to stay on another week, but Laurel didn't care. She was so happy to get a sucker for being good during the x-ray

Yay! Finally the cast comes off. I thought Laurel would be scared of them cutting it off with the saw, but she thought it was cool. They asked us if we wanted to keep her cast and we were like, "No! It stinks; throw it away!"

Waiting for the doctor right after her cast came off. You can see she was still holding her arm like it was in the cast, but in less than a day she was using it like normal.