What Next?

So as you could see in my last post, Cole's right arm is a little tied up. About 2 weeks ago, he was helping Grandpa feed calves. The boys always play on the small square bales while Grandpa feeds and that night was no different. As Cole was climbing down, a bale gave way and he fell with the bale on top of him. Pat noticed that something was wrong and went to investigate. I was in the garage painting the trim for the boys' room when they came in. The plan for the evening was to head to dinner with Pat's parents, sister, and her husband. I figured he was coming in to tell me to get ready to go. Then I looked at Cole's face. He was fighting hard to keep the tears at bay, which is nothing new. He tends to be a little over sensitive. Then Pat started taking off his coat and telling him to tell me what happened. Cole would not move his arm. We decided a trip to the ER was in order since he wouldn't move his arm and it looked a little blotchy. We figured we'd head to the hospital on the way to the restaurant instead of our normal hospital. They were very good there. They got him in for an x-ray fairly quickly. We were expecting that he popped it out of joint or sprained it or something. Nope. He broke the growth plate in his shoulder. Fantastic! Since it was his shoulder there isn't much they could do except put it in a sling.

The following week we met with an orthopedist to see if he would need surgery or not. Good news: no surgery! Apparently he broke it just right and kept everything aligned. The hardest part has been trying to convince him he still needs to keep it still even though it feels ok. He has 2 more weeks in the sling. Then if the orthopedist says it looks ok he can take it off and by 4 weeks it should be completely healed. He's been such a trooper. He has to sit out recess and gym at school, which has been hard as those are his favorite parts of the day. His teacher has been great and takes him for a walk during gym and has him help set up centers during recess. He's getting pretty good at writing with his left hand too.

I am so very thankful that he's such an easy going kid. I just wish this stuff didn't happen to him. His first few weeks of life were spent in the NICU. Shortly after he turned 1 he had surgery to close his PDA. Shortly after he turned 2, he broke his femur. We made it through ages 3 and 4 without incident. I was hoping that meant we were done. The worst of it is, he's my cautious child. He doesn't push the limits or jump in with both feet. He's always careful, usually too careful. I guess all we can do is hope and pray this is his last trip to the ER for a very long time!