Monday, November 5, 2012

Graham's ER Visit

Well, it was only a matter of time. I figured that out of my three boys, Graham would be the first to visit the ER and/or break a bone. I was right about that, however I could have never predicted the incident that took place yesterday!! I had fallen asleep on the couch that night and woke up around 12:45am to some extremely loud screaming/crying. I ran into Graham's room to find him standing by his bed, looking disoriented, bawling at the top of his lungs. I immediately picked him up and brought him into the living room to rock/snuggle him and try to figure out what had happened. I was assuming that he was having some kind of night terror as I couldn't quite figure out if he was awake. However, after nearly an hour of crying he finally began to be able to talk and kept telling us that his mouth and nose hurt. This didn't make much sense as we couldn't identify any "owies" so we tried a few things (cold medicine, chapstick, ibuprofen) that we figured might help and couldn't hurt and then proceeded to try to get him back to sleep. The poor little guy simply could not sleep. He would fall asleep for a minute, then I would see him start to cringe or grimace, then he would wake up screaming again. We were so confused and worried but didn't know what to do with him at that time of night so we continued to try to get him to sleep and eventually he did sleep for a couple of hours (from 4-6am). As soon as the urgent care center opened on Sunday, Graham and I headed over there. As we were waiting in the waiting room, he was sitting on my lap just screaming and crying. He would calm down for a few seconds and then I would get called to the counter (more forms, insurance card, etc.) and have to move him a bit and he would start wailing again. The doctors at the urgent care were completely stumped. He was still saying that his mouth hurt so they tested for strep- negative. He was still screaming when I moved or shifted him so they tested for the flu- negative. They finally recommended that we head to the ER. Luckily my parents were able to come over and watch Reid and Jack so that Randy could come with me to the ER. Before we left, we fed Graham a snack (on the floor since he wouldn't get up and walk to the table) and we noticed he was not using his right arm. We reported this to the ER doctor but he was stumped as well, as there was no obvious problem with his arm and he was ABLE to move/rotate it, albeit with some obvious pain. They ran several tests there and finally decided to do an x-ray of his stomach and back. We asked that they include the arm since we were fairly certain it was the main problem and they agreed. Well, the x-rays showed that he had broken his clavicle!! We could not believe it! How does a child do this in his room in the middle of the night?? I suppose he fell off his bed or tried to climb the ladder to Jack's bed and fell from there but it is still hard to believe. Why was he even awake to do that? Or was he asleep? How does he not remember any of it? Well, this will always be a mystery but we are so thankful that we figured out the problem and that it is something that will heal fairly easily on its own. The only treatment is to keep him in a sling for three weeks and try to avoid injuring it further. Apparently kids this age heal very quickly and easily so he should feel a little better each day. My sweet little rough and tumble boy finally managed to hurt himself but wow, he is a tough little guy!! We love our little mess and are so thankful that it wasn't something more serious!!

No comments: