First broken bone

If I had to place bets, I would have bet Gavin would be the first one to break a bone. I would have lost money. Hunter broke his arm last Friday, doing what he does best, tripping over his own feet. I've never claimed he is my most graceful child. He is clumsy and runs into walls and door frames on an hourly basis.

He was in his The Little Gym class doing extreme sports, running into the mats on the wall, trying to run up them, doing backwards rolls off of the donut, etc. No injuries. He goes to run to the wall as instructed, trips over his own feet, and with a straight arm tried to catch himself. He told me, "I landed with my arm straight, then it bent. Then I made it straight to stand up, but when I pushed on it, it bent again." This came as we were in the pediatrician's office. When he first came out (I didn't see the fall, the 11 month old loves my attention during Hunter's class), he was crying and holding his arm. He had been in class about 50 minutes and had had preschool right before class. He is usually pretty tired by this point. I thought he was hurt, but also being tired made him cry a little more. So I asked him if he was ready to go home or go back into class. He walked back into class holding his arm (read: mommy fail). By the time class was over (maybe 10 minutes or less later), he came out still holding his arm and was crying again. He was also shaking and chattering his teeth.

We got all his stuff on, Miss Mindy carried Gavin to the car so I could carry Hunter. As I was heading to his pediatrician's office (this building has x-ray and ortho in it) I called to make sure they could fit us in. The office was able to and my favorite pediatrician was doing all the same day "sick" appointments. By the time Dr. Scott was walking in, Carl had arrived from work. Dr. Scott said it could either be a fracture or a nurse's maid arm. He was not comfortable doing the maneuver until he knew for sure there was not a break. We were sent to x-ray and Dr. Scott instructed the radiologist to do a wet read (they read the x-ray right away). We went back up to the ped's office. As we were sitting in the room, I could hear Dr. Scott on the phone calling down to ortho saying there was a four year old with a broken arm. Sigh.

Dr. Scott was able to get ortho to fit us in before they left for the day (it was almost 4:30 and their last patient is usually 4). Since it was a fresh break, we couldn't get a cast as they had to account for the swelling. They splinted his arm and had us come back a week later for the cast. While they were splinting his arm, Dr. Scott came down to check on Hunter and speak with the ortho about his plan for Hunter. Did I mention how much I love Dr. Scott and his practice?!

We went back a week later to get his cast on. The did another x-ray to make sure how they had his arm set in the splint was working. His little elbow had a bruise and was still pretty swollen. He picked white for his cast (which glows in the dark) because he wants to make an Ironman arm out of his cast.