About 2 weeks ago I was relaxing downstairs while the children were napping when I heard a loud "thud" followed by very loud screams. I ran upstairs to find Riley laying on my bedroom floor still screaming and holding his shoudler.
I have never in my life heard him scream this way so I immediately knew something was wrong. I picked him up and laid him on the bed and try to convince him through his screams that I have to look at it. He very very reluctantly lets me and I notice a definite hump that shouldn't be there. I call AJ and he doesn't answer.
AJ is not allowed to answer personal calls at work(needless to say that rule has been changed). I couldn't get ahold of AJ and I had no clue where the nearest hospital was or even how to get there. I go get some ice and tell him he can scream as much as he wants but he has to keep the ice on. AJ finally returns one of my 15 phone calls and I tell him "I know you can't talk but Riley is hurt." He has to call me back. So I go downstairs to find the nearest hospital then Camille, my neighbor, shows up to help. Thank heavens!
Together we get the kids dressed and into the car and to the emergancy room. Camille takes Tatum, which later we find out is a blessing since she isn't allowed in the emergancy room. For a Wednesday afternoon the emergancy room is uncommonly busy there isn't even a place to sit. Since he is little they sent us to triage within minutes. The nurse asks him some questions and without even taking his shirt off to look says, "oh yeah he's got a dislocated shoulder." So they send us to the pediatric emergancy ward to get us a room but of course there are none. So they sit us on a stretcher beside the nurses station. The nurse taking his blood pressure and temperature says, "broken clavical." I'm like "you can tell just by looking at him?"
So we wait and wait and Riley is in much better spirits....he tells all the nurses a few jokes and they just love him. Every once in a while another nurse would bring another "gift." First a bear, then a sticker, then a little toy dinosaur, then another sticker. He wasn't scared at all. So the doctor comes over to see him and he still refuses to tell anyone how he'd hurt himself. I tell the doctor...."he was supposed to be taking a nap on my bed so I'm guessing he won't say because he might have been doing something he wasn't supposed to." The doctor tells Riley...."you know you won't get in trouble but we need to know how you hurt your shoulder." He tells her "I was laying on the wood part of mommy's bed and I fell off." Since we have a sleigh bed this scenerio is entirely possible. The doctor says..."Riley we need to take an X-ray to see if you bone is broken." Riley sighed and said, "It is." The nurses and the doctor and myself all laugh and we wait for the x-ray tech to come and get us.
About that time AJ came walking down the hall. I was relieved to see him mainly because I knew how worried he was. AJ asked him all the same questions everyone else had asked and by this point Riley was so calm he just said, "Daddy can we go home?" They took us to get the x-ray and AJ had to wait outside. The nurse asked the x-ray tech to put him up on the table without telling her what they were x-raying for and she lifted him up right under his arms. He screamed and started bawling and the nurse yelled "broken clavical" at the tech.....the poor girl teared up and apologized to Riley. Then apologized to me. I told her it was alright....I mean how was she to know? So of course I had to stand behind the wall with the nurses and Riley was so brave....he wasn't scared a bit. As soon as the x-ray showed up on the monitor we all saw the break. Poor baby.
So we go back to our little stretcher in the hall and wait for the doctor. She says, "well Riley you were right....it is broken. You didn't need an x-ray afterall." He asked, "Do I get a lollipop now?" The doctor said, "We don't have lollipops but we do have popsicles." He asked, "Will YOU take me to get a popsicle?" And on a day where they are so busy we couldn't even be put in a room....that doctor personally took my son to get a popsicle. It was so sweet of her. By that time we are discharged with 4 stickers, a bear, a toy dinosaur, a popsicle, a shoulder brace, and a prescription for a tylenol/codine mixture.
It's been two weeks now and he is doing really well. We have a follow-up appointment with a local doctor this week to see how he's healing.
Here is a picture of Riley in his brace.
