T W O fractures, T W O bones

Yesterday was a day that didn't go quite as planned. Turns out, it was a blessing. With the boys in school Starr, Mac and I had plans of a day trip down to Heidelburg to check out the castle and beautiful city. It's just over an hour drive- not too far.

After staying up most of the night before with Caden, I ended up keeping him home from school {against his will} and taking him into the doctor. He has a horrible ear infection. Within minutes of getting home from the clinic with him, Jim called.

The school nurse called him at work to let him know Coleman had fallen off the monkey bars at recess. She said he was crying hysterically and we should go in and get him. I did a quick turn and ran back on base to the elementary school. The thought crossed my mind how grateful {again} that we made the move this summer to live only five minutes from base. I was able to get to him quickly.

I found him in the nurse's office sobbing uncontrollably. It was a different kind of cry.
My heart dropped.

While trying to jump from one bar to the next on the upper monkey bars, he fell landing on his hands- arms extended, taking the weight of his fall. Jim met us in the school parking lot and we raced to the ER on the other base {Landstuhl Hospital}- a 15-minute drive that seemed to take forever with about a million speed bumps. Each jolt causing my poor little guy to cry out even louder in pain.

I don't think there is anything worse than seeing {and hearing} one of my boys in pain and not being able to stop it. Moms are supposed to be able to fix everything. It was horrible-reminding me of a few years back taking Justin to the ER when he broke his wrist playing football. In middle school, he sobbed the entire drive as well.

With the emergency room full, we were fortunately put at the top of the priority list and received really great care. The x-rays showed that he definitely broke it. It's his right arm {his dominant hand} on his forearm. Two breaks on both bones. Fortunately, the doctor said it's the best break possible.

His growth plate is ok and the fractures didn't go all the way through the bone. Luckily, he's young and the bones are soft and flexible. Had it been an adult, he said the bones would have snapped all the way through making a mess.

Once the Motrin kicked in and the splint was on stabilizing it, he let it be known that this was the worst day of his life. In his opinion, tonsils were easy compared to this.

It's a 48-hour wait for the swelling to go down and we'll be back into the orthopedic surgeon for more x-rays and a cast. For today, it's another day off and a little pampering by a mom who still feels horrible.

As beautiful as Heidelburg is, I'm so grateful that we were home.