Broken Elbow

We had quite possibly the WORST week as parents.

Saturday, April 30 was actually a great day. My parents came down and watched the kids so Bob and I could clean out the garage. After their naps we got a lot done, spent a lot of time as a family and had such a great night.

Then, right before bedtime, I picked up all the toys in the living room and vacuumed. Jacob LOVES when I vacuum because everything is off the floor and he feels like he has a ton of space to run. So, we goofed around for a long time chasing each other and pretending to be different animals. Finally, I knew we were done, so we stopped running and I laid down on the ground flat. Jacob just stood up on my back and hopped off. Something he has a done a million times, and definitely not a far jump (just a matter of inches!). He caught himself wrong, and started SCREAMING. We have NEVER heard him scream like that, and I instantly knew his arm was broken.

Jacob kept complaining that his wrist was what was hurting. We iced his wrist and kept it still, not knowing the whole time it was actually his elbow. We couldn't get him calmed down, so I ran next door and our neighbor watched Joshua until my parents made it down. I was originally just going to take Jacob to the ER until my parents came and Bob could join us, but Jacob needed someone to hold his arm still. He never stopped screaming the entire time. It was the worst feeling in the entire world, and even worse when he kept saying, "I can't do it, I can't do it!" I think the pain was so terrible for him that he just didn't know what to do.

We rushed to St. Francis, which luckily is just around the corner from our house. Again, luckily our pediatrician is through them so all of our information was already loaded and we didn't have to go through paperwork. They got us in and out within two hours, and were so wonderful taking care of us and putting him before everyone else because of his age. Even the doctor thought it was his wrist at first from the swelling, but we found out it was in fact his elbow that was fractured. They put a splint on him, gave him a prescription for the pain, and we were on our way.

Sunday we had to lay low as he got use to his arm in a sling and was on pain medicine all day.

Monday morning I called and got him into a pediatric orthopedist at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital. On the way, Jacob started saying his belly hurt, and I knew right away he had an ear infection. If he has an ear infection and we are in the car, he throws up. Sure enough, he throws up all over himself. We had to strip him down in the waiting room, and my mom ran to Target for us and bought us new clothes. They did more xrays to make sure they weren't missing anything, and put a cast on his arm from his wrist to his shoulder. Jacob wanted a pink cast, but we talked him into his second choice of purple. We still have to wait until Monday when we go back for another round of xrays to see if he needs to have surgery on his elbow or not. Keep Jacob in your prayers.

Because he threw up, we made an appointment at our pediatrician for that afternoon to get his ears looked at. They didn't see an infection, so we went home.

Fast forward to Wednesday, he seemed fine all day and then started screaming at night. I took him to an urgent care for the first time ever, and they said he has so much fluid in his right ear that they were sure his eardrum would rupture. He also had his first fever ever, registering at 100 degrees. We are surprised we made it this far without a fever. Jacob was miserable, and I have spent every night sleeping on the floor in his room since Sunday to make sure he's okay. Sometimes he rolls funny on his arm, and it's been easier for me to sleep in there and jump up and readjust him than to have him wake all the way up. He's doing really well with his cast now, though, so in a few nights I'll probably go back to our room. Whenever Jacob is sick or needs us, we stay in his room instead of bringing him in our bed...he loves his bed and I love that he sees it as a safe place, so we keep it that way and just stay in there with him if he needs us for things like this.

Anyway, this ear infection made us decide tubes were absolutely necessary. So, we called his ENT doctor, who is also through St. Francis, and unfortunately he was in Mooresville's office on Thursday. So, off to Mooresville we went. He agreed that he thought the eardrum would rupture, and we are now scheduled for surgery on May 20. Jacob's eardrum hasn't ruptured yet, and we are hoping we caught it just in time. It's crazy that his ear went from not showing the infection yet and two days later being so bad that we are afraid of it rupturing.

So, poor kid has had a rough week, and we feel terrible watching him be in pain. Jacob is getting pretty good at getting around with his cast and he truly doesn't complain ever. I think this whole ordeal has really shown us Jacob's personality, and we couldn't be prouder of him. We see how determined he is to do things on his own even with his cast. He doesn't ask for help and wants to try to do everything himself. He doesn't ask us how to do things and you can see the wheels turning in his head when he tries to figure out how to do things without his right arm (yes, it was his right arm and he's right handed...just can't catch a break). He's just so positive through all of this and is just such a joy to be around despite the hand he's been dealt. I wish we didn't have to see this side of him at such a young age, but we are so proud of his outlook and how he handles situations and how he knows that everything is going to be just fine.

Jacob, we love you more than anything and we are just so thankful that all of this is fixable and we will have our healthy baby back very soon. Crossing our fingers we get good news on Monday at the orthopedist.