IT'S ALL FUN AND GAMES UNTIL SOMEONE BREAKS AN ARM

The evening started out so innocently. It was Matthew's first night of soccer practice for the season. Ethan loves soccer season because it means lots of time kicking balls on the field and lots of time playing on the playground,and that's exactly what we were doing. Having fun swinging, sliding and climbing. Until he reached for the monkey bars, grabbed on and slipped right off. I was three steps away from him. Apparently, three steps too many away from him. As soon as he landed I knew it wasn't good, in fact I knew it was quite bad. I scooped him up and ran for the car. Dave saw us flying across the field and came running too. Fortunately, one of Matthew's friends dad saw the commotion and came over to help. He is a physical therapist and knows a good bit about bones. He and Dave found an old kaleidoscope in Dave's trunk that they used for a splint and 2 rags to wrap around it to keep it in place.

We were off to the Emergency Room.

Waiting in the children's ER. - See the yellow kaleidoscope and yucky rags

(A little redneck MacGyver?)

X-Rays. Very painful for Ethan because they had to move his arm around quite a bit.
Waiting for the Orthopedic Surgeon to come and tell us how they would handle his break.

Getting some morphine to help ease the pain and calm the nerves.
I asked for some too, but request denied. The Orthopedic Surgeon told us that Ethan's humorous bone was broken just above the elbow and that the piece that was broken had shifted to another spot in his arm.

They would admit him to the hospital and surgery was scheduled for 7:00 am Saturday morning to put 2 pins in his arm.

Here we are trying to sleep.
Walking with Ethan down to the the Operating Room.

We said good bye to him at 7:25 and at 7:50 they called us to say they had started the procedure.

By 8:30 the Anesthesiologist came out and got us and brought us back to the recovery room. We were happy to be able to be there when he woke up.

This is how Ethan spent most of Saturday. Sleeping off the anesthesia and trauma.

Awake, but not very happy about it.

Before Ethan could be discharged he needed to drink lots of fluids and show signs of feeling better. They told us if he could do these things he could go home Saturday afternoon. If not, he would need to stay over another night. We did NOT want to stay another night but Ethan would not drink anything and all he did all afternoon was sleep. I couldn't blame him after all he had been through, but come on, just wake up long enough to drink a juice box. Nope!

Until.... Alyssa and Matthew came to visit. The minute they walked into the room, he opened his eyes and started talking. They sat with him and played and ate and drank!

Hooray!!! He was so happy to see his brother and sister. He perked right up and in no time we had discharge papers and were on our way home.

Tony, the Tech. pushed Ethan in this very cool race car through the halls to our car outside. He even stopped by the fish tank to say good bye to Nemo. Good bye Children's Hospital. Thanks for taking such good care of Ethan!

Hope we won't be seeing you again.
Ethan was such a trooper the last 24 hours. Every nurse and doctor that worked with him commented on how sweet and cute and good he was. He really did not cry during the 24 hours we were in the hospital. He even braved his way through the IV needle. He would get a bit emotional and at times whiny, but he was so good!

It's going to be a long 4 weeks in such a big cast. We visit the doctor in 2 weeks to get it checked and two weeks after that he will have the pins removed.

Please pray for Ethan! Please pray for mommy!