ANOTHER Trip to the ER.

I'm wondering, how many visits can one child make to the ER before they send someone to investigate the parents for abuse, neglect, or just plain stupidity? Because today was our SECOND trip in 2 1/2 months. (The first was June 2. Click HERE)

We had just eaten lunch and I sat Brax on the loveseat to play with his blocks he had dumped there. I went to the kitchen to clean up. I saw him leaning over the back of the loveseat, which he has been doing quite a bit lately (and getting in trouble for--but apparently not enough trouble). I hollered for him to sit down. He sort of sat down, and then I saw him start to climb on the arm of the couch. I looked down to put the dirty dishes in the sink and dry my hands before I went over to get him off the couch myself. In those 4.7 seconds, he fell off. I did not actually see him fall, but when I heard the thud (on the carpet, thankfully) I saw that he was lying on his back. I figured he wasn't hurt too bad.... until I saw his arm. His forearm was curved in (bent) about an inch above his wrist, and there was a red mark on it, like it had gotten caught as he fell. I knew immediately it was broken. I did have the sense to know that a broken arm wasn't life threatening, so I called Mike instead of 911 this time. He was golfing with our neighbor, who called his wife to come with us to the hospital. (These are Jace's parents---thank goodness Jace came too. He had Brax laughing in the back seat on the way!)

Sooooo.... off to the ER we went. Brax was no longer crying at all, but he wouldn't move his arm and his hand was kind of dangly. He did great for his xrays (with Daddy) and fell asleep in Daddy's arms while we watched cartoons in the room. Then they came back with the not-so-good news. His right arm was broken in 2 places-both the radius and the ulna and small fractures in them. Thankfully, they were not complete fractures and won't require surgery, but they will require the placement of a cast by an orthopoedic specialist on Monday. Right now he has a splint on.

We came home, and Brax was business as usual. He ate a huge snack (cheese stick, apple, and ham), he played and played and played and sang and talked, then ate 2 pieces of pizza for dinner. He didn't mess with his splint, and was pretty good about not putting weight on his arm. He let us wrap it with a plastic bag for bathtime, and was cooperative about keeping it out of the water as much as possible. His only complaint was when I tried to give him the liquid Lortab. He said, "YUCKY, Mommy! You eat it!" So tomorrow I will be going BACK to the pharmacy to have it flavored. It IS awful-it tasted like nail polish remover.

He went to sleep just fine, and even fell asleep on his back like I told him to (instead of on his tummy with his arm all cockeyed underneath him like usual).

We'll see what tomorrow brings....

(A sidenote--I know this post was very rambly, but I wanted any concerned family to know the details! Everyone else can just skim it!)