Here's the condensed (yes, this is condensed) version of our latest installment in the story of how Sam is helping us meet the $7,000 deductible on our insurance policy one "medical issue" at a time - and it's only May!
Friday, April 23 we were at play & pray at church and it was snack time. I put Sam in his stroller, gave him a snack, and then got distracted by another child and started refilling snacks around the room. I even stepped out of the room for a moment and when I walked back in, another mom there brought Sam to me saying he fell out of his stroller. (Awesome mom moment #1 - I didn't buckle him in!) He was almost inconsolable, which is unlike him, but it was well past nap time so we just left. He continued to cry in the car most of the way home, which is also unlike him. He usually falls right asleep once we start moving when he's late for a nap. (Awesome mom moment #2 - this was a pretty big indication that something was wrong.) The rest of the day he was extremely clingy and fussy when I tried to leave his side, but I attributed it to the fact that he had a fever earlier in the week and must be getting sick. Also, let's not forget that I was preparing for Jack's birthday party the next morning.
Saturday, April 24 we're running around getting ready for the birthday party, dealing with the fact that it's raining and we were supposed to be outside in the backyard all day. Sam is sitting in his room crying and I finally realize that he's not crawling. (Another awesome mom moment - my baby who is usually all over the place hasn't crawled since he fell out of the stroller almost 24 hours ago and I'm just now realizing it.) Well now I'm starting to freak out but I'm having 20+ kids at my house in less than an hour so I'm not sure what to do!
I finally call the doctor after the kids clear out of my house and by this time Sam is still fussy and clingy, but he's also happy at times and starting to crawl sitting up (!), as well as pulling up using his hands and feet. The doctor says he sounds ok, but told me to bring him in Sunday if I still had concerns.
I took him in Sunday afternoon and the doctor (on call, not my regular doctor) checked him out and told me he thought Sam was fine, but probably bruised and sore and that's what was attributing to the weird sitting up crawl that he had developed over the past 24 hours. He told me to give him Motrin and if he still seemed to be in pain after a few days, then bring him back in.
A couple days later, Sam was back to his usual happy self. He was crawling all over the place with his new crawl and I had finally figured out that it seemed to be his wrist that was sore. Sometimes when we tried to dress him and pulled a little hard on his wrist he would cry out, but he never cried over it and I really just thought he was still sore, but ok (yet another awesome Mom moment where I don't make the best decision).
Fast forward two weeks and three days from the day Sam fell out of his stroller and we're seeing our regular pediatrician for Jack's 4 year well child visit. I mention to the doctor what had happened, told him Sam was still crawling funny, and asked if I should be concerned. The doctor said he felt a little bump and we should probably just x-ray it to make sure. We head across town and have x-rays taken. The technicians wouldn't tell me anything because a doctor has to make the diagnosis, but one of the sweet ladies indicated that there was something suspicious showing up on the x-ray.
We head back across town to take the x-rays to our pediatrician. As they called us back, we walked down the hallway to where our doctor was standing reading the x-rays. There were at least 7 other nurses gathered around and all of them looked up at me as I walked down the long hallway to where they were standing. They all had the same look on their faces and I knew it wasn't going to be good news. The doctor then proceeded to show me that my baby's wrist was BROKEN - both bones! And that's when I felt like the worst mother on the planet and almost lost it in front of our doctor and all seven nurses! He was very kind and told me the good news was that Sam's bones were were healing straight and at this point, they were healed enough that he didn't need a cast or splint. His weird sitting up crawl thing was his way of compensating for the broken wrist and just another way God protected him throughout this whole situation.
So that's the story of how Sam got the first broken bone of our brood, and it was completely my fault. He didn't even get a cast to show for it, but that is probably a blessing, as well. A couple days after he got the official diagnosis, he started crawling normally again. And now he's into everything again, just like he was before Super Mom didn't buckle him into his stroller. Many lessons learned from this, one of which is to always, always, always buckle those babies in, even when you're not pushing them anywhere!
