First (and only, we hope) visit to the ER for 2008

The first broken bone in the Bergmann household. Not bad for seven years and three active boys. Yesterday, as Joshua was navigating the monkey bars at school for possibly the tenth time that day (no, I'm not exaggerating), he swung a little too hard, missed the next rung, and fell down to the ground, hard! I right away ran over to him, thinking he had hurt his back or tail bone. But it was his arm that was in pain. At first glance, it didn't seem like anything was wrong, but by the time we had walked home (he cried the whole way, quite unusual for him), it was starting to swell significantly and I knew we would be taking a trip to the ER.

We got into the hospital at about 1:00 and were shown straight into a room. The Doctor saw us nearly right away, then Joshua was off for x-rays, and then he got some Codeine. (Yuck! He did not like the taste of that!) We waited and waited. The Doctor came by and said that another x-ray was needed and that Ortho needed to be consulted. Joshua got his second x-ray which was much more painful than the first. He got some more drugs, and we sat around and waited. And waited some more. Natalee (who had thrown-up in the van on the way there and didn't have a clean change of clothes) and Andrew were there with us too. More drugs, lots of phone calls to arrange for someone to take care of Caleb, and more waiting. Finally, at around 6:30, the Doctor from Ortho came down to see the x-ray and decided he did NOT need surgery. We were told after his first x-ray that he could not have anything to eat or drink because surgery was a possibility. Fortunately, we avoided that hurdle.

So then we were sent to Casting, and Joshua got a hard-back cast. The front or top is relatively soft. Next Wednesday, we go back to see the Doctor, his arm will be re-evaluated, and if all looks good, they will put a full hard cast on his arm. He will have that cast on for at least one month.

He made it through the afternoon and evening in a great deal of pain, but he did really well. His first night sleeping with the cast was not that great, but his arm should hurt less and less over time and he'll get used to hauling the cast around. Right now, he's taking Tylenol every 4 hours for the pain, but is still up for watching TV, taking walks outside, and kicking the ball around. The hardest part of this will be that he can't play soccer or ride his bike or run, even when he is no longer in any pain. Hopefully his arm will heal quickly.