As you can tell from the title this was a long day, so hang in there through this description of our day—I tried to break it down into sections.
The Stiff Neck
Today I awoke and could hardly move my neck. This alone would be difficult, yet added to this was the fact that even after Advil I was in excruciating pain. This pain was not only constant, but also sharp stabbing pain when I moved certain directions. The one blessing was that Dustin was working at home today. Yet, one problem was that he actually needed to get that work done, as he has extremely important meetings next week that he needed to prepare for today. So, that left me limping around the house and just grinning (not sure how successful I was on this part) and bearing it with the boys. The Lord did bless me with Josh going back to sleep really quickly after waking up and Danny was engrossed in coloring. I therefore was able to leave (while Dustin worked in the office) and get a massage. Now the massage I received the last time was really good, and I have to say the one I got today was equally good, but the problem was it was exactly the same as the previous one. Unlike the United States, where our massage therapists (at least the quality ones) have the ability to target the knots they feel in the muscle and work them out, I am guessing from my massage today that this is not a possibility here. They must be trained in a certain method and this is what they do each and every time. It results in a relaxing massage, but does not get any of the knots actually worked out. Therefore, while I felt relaxed, I still could not move very well and was still in pain—it was just tolerable pain. Unfortunately, it moved back to excruciating by the afternoon.
The Arm Trauma
One blessing in my excruciating pain was that Dustin and I had agreed we would go to the clubhouse for dinner. I therefore was not in the middle of dinner preparation when our friends called to see if we wanted to meet them for dinner. Due to my neck and the fact they were fairly close to us, we settled on them joining us for dinner at our clubhouse. While waiting for them to arrive, Dustin ran back to the office to finish an e-mail quick. The boys and I hung out downstairs. Josh of course was getting into everything and when he started pulling on the stroller (I keep it out between the family room and dining room partly because we use it all the time and partly there is no other place to put it), I went over to move him away since I did not want it to fall on top of him. I made the decision to let me walk away with my help rather than picking him up because he likes to practice walking and I thought I could avoid the ensuing fussing that usually follows taking something away from Josh. I detached his hands from the handle bars and began walking him across the floor. I was holding his hands while he held onto my fingers. I have done this numerous times before and did the same thing with Danny when he was little, but little did I know this is not a good method and can cause problems as I was soon to find out.
I am not sure if it was the fact that Josh was crying and arching his back (this is Josh’s favorite thing to do when he does not get his way—he cries and arches his back—becoming sort of stiff as a board) or the fact that I picked him up from the ground just enough to have him sit on his bottom, but something went terribly wrong. At first, I was oblivious simply because I thought he was still just crying from not being able to play with the stroller. I picked him up from where I sat him on the floor, and this was my first clue something else was going on because he did not quiet down. Normally, when I pick him up he calms fairly quickly—unless he is really mad, and then it takes a little longer.
I brought him over to the sofa, and I noticed that while he was still crying, he was not using his one arm exactly the same, but I was not sure if I was just being a little crazy about it. I moved his arms around and felt around on him and he did not cry any harder, so I just held him wishing he could tell me what was wrong. After a few minutes of sitting there, he quieted down, and while I was still a little concerned, I was relieved that he was not crying anymore. I told Dustin what happened, and he said he probably just felt a twinge in it, but was fine. Our friends called to say they were arriving, so we packed up and headed to the clubhouse. We were a little ahead of them, so we ducked into the office and then the library at the clubhouse. As I still felt something was not right, we decided to get Josh out of his stroller and let him crawl for a minute. Of course to my great horror, he could not crawl. His arm just crumpled under him.
Since he did not seem to be in pain, Dustin suggested that he probably was just sore and did not want to put pressure on it right then. He reassured me that he would probably be fine in minutes. We met up with our friends in the restaurant and they after we explained what was going on with Josh uttered similar suggestions. I, of course, had read some article years ago that said something about not walking with your children holding their hands. I was kicking myself for not heeding their advice as Josh was not obviously hurt as a result. I was racking my brain for what the article said and I feared that they said it could cause a dislocated shoulder.
Dinner with Friends
Our friends were so kind and it was comforting to be in their company. She apparently had dislocated her elbow as a young girl and said that he would not let us touch it or at least would be crying and in a lot of pain, if something was dislocated. Josh was allowing us to maneuver it, but sometimes would cry out and sometimes would not. Hence, we finished our meal with our friends and went home, still praying that Josh would use his arm. We did have one glimmer of hope in that he pulled it up to drink his milk.
The Night Before the ER
As we thought he might be in pain and that was the reason he was not using his arm, I gave him Tylenol before bed. He slept for exactly the four hours that it covers and then woke up. He was exhausted of course and while we listed the pros and cons of leaving for the hospital immediately or waiting for the morning, I was finally able to get him back to sleep after more Tylenol and a lot of rocking. So, Dustin and I prayed we could wait to morning to have a doctor look at Josh. Just the sheer logistics of going to the ER makes it something you only want to do if absolutely necessary. Josh again woke up at 4am and everything I tried did not calm him down. He wasn’t moving his arm at all – sort of like it was paralyzed… Dustin and I therefore decided we had to go to the ER.
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