Daniel must LOVE the doctor!

After doing so well with his surgery in January, Daniel barely made it into February before his next medical adventure.

I got a call from school in the mid-afternoon.  Normally, the ladies who call start every conversation with, "This is so-and-so from such-and-such school.  THE CHILDREN ARE FINE.  I'm just calling to…"  But this time, there was no disclaimer.  They said that Daniel had fallen down while lining up after play time and bumped his head.  He didn't seem to be in any pain, but he wasn't really moving his right arm very much.

The day was almost over, so I thanked them and said I'd check it out when he got home.  I told Joe, and when we all met up at home, he confirmed that Daniel hadn't complained of anything, but we looked and his arm did seem a little swollen around the elbow and he wasn't moving it beyond shrugging his shoulder.  I called the advice nurse who said that if "they aren't moving the arm, we generally want to check it out." So we got an appointment and ran over.  The pediatrician sent us for x-rays, but the machine in the pediatrics building was broken, so we had to walk over to the hospital to get them done. Everyone in the hospital has to wear masks during cold & flu season, so we played along.

We also got stickers at each desk we stopped by.  We went to the big X-ray room and I held Daniel while they twisted his fore-arm in different directions to get views of all sides of his arm and wrist.  Then we trod back to the pediatrics building where we were told that the arm was broken, but that it was a tiny fracture up at the top of the ulna (by the elbow) that should heal perfectly.  An appointment was made to see the orthopedist the next day and we were sent home with a sling that Daniel HATED.

The next day they showed us the x-ray with the fracture.  Daniel was excited to see his arm on TV!  Then it was time to put a cast on.  They'd promised us a "soft cast", but the technician worried about someone Daniel's age being able to keep it dry and safe, so he did a fiberglass cast instead.  

Daddy and Daniel see his arm on TV!

The arrow is pointing to the fracture

The first step is to put  a sock on his arm to protect his skin.

And roll that sock all the way up his arm

Making sure there's room for the fingers to wiggle!

Now wrapping it up in sturdy cotton

And covering that with the fiberglass layer

And finally, waiting for that to dry and harden

Daniel was NOT enjoying this part

We left the hospital and went to Boppy's office to visit and get some cool decorations added to the cast.    He fell asleep in the car, so I let him rest in there with Daddy while I wandered down to one of the Fisherman's Wharf souvenir shops and bought some short-sleeved tshirts - his long sleeves weren't going to fit over the cast and his short sleeved shirts might be too tight to stretch over, so we got an assortment of larger tshirts for him.

When it came time to draw, Daniel asked for Captain America's shield.  He also took some stabs at drawing on the cast himself.

He wore the cast for a total of three weeks, with visits back to check his progress twice and replace the cast once.  He was miserable when they took the cast off - they had to use the saw since it was a hard cast - and then we had to go over to get another x-ray done.  The little old man running the X-ray said gruffly, OK, Dad and kid come on in.  Daniel was clinging to me, so I said I'd go, and the man was annoyed.  Apparently, he didn't think a woman's place was in the diagnostic imaging suite!  Daniel was scared and crying, and the man chided him for crying and being a baby.  It annoyed me, but the nurses and doctors on the orthopedics side were so nice, I quickly forgot about it.

He then had to get a new cast put on, which meant Boppy had to come by and give him new decorations - this time a Bat Signal to go with his Captain America shield.

When it finally came time to take the cast off, we just happened to end up with back-to-back appointments with Grandma, so the "pretty doctor" (as Daniel knew her) got to see whole generations of the family.  Daniel squirmed a lot when they pulled out the saw to remove the cast and I wasn't able to hold him as firmly as I should have, so his skin got "burned" a bit into a little scrape where the cast came off.  It gave him a decent scar to show off to his friends, though.

His arm has now completely healed, but he has developed a bizarre fear of going up and down our front stairs ever since the cast came off.  This we will have to break him of because I cannot carry him up and down if he gets much bigger!