Camille's broken elbow

 Last summer Camille broke her elbow and it was pretty bad.  I was at mutual that night and Marty called me to say that Camille fell off our Little Tykes slide that we keep inside during the hot weather months.  He told me he thought she had popped her elbow out again so I ran home to pop it back into place (after mine, Bryce's, and Camille's nursemaid elbows I was feeling like a pro).  When I got there she was definitely in pain, but I swallowed my nerves and did what I always do to pop it back in.  I heard and felt a pop and thought that was that.  But usually the kids calm down pretty quickly and if we put a Popsicle or sucker that particular hand they will get brave and start using it again.  But Camille started to get worse and worse.

We put the kids to bed and handed Clara over to Kelly (he was living with us at the time) and started off for a very long night.  The doctor at our twilight pediatrics saw how quickly and how badly it was swelling and sent us to an emergency room with a good pediatric unit.  When we got to the ER and showed them her now VERY swollen and bruised arm, they got us right back.  Very long story short, it was a nasty broken elbow and she got a splint put on that night with instructions to see a pediatric orthopedic doctor in a week to see if she would need surgery.

It's one of the saddest things I have had to do with any of my kids.  She was in SO much pain and Marty and I were both so relieved when she got some heavy duty meds, but that was also sad to watch how loopy they made her.  The nurses were really nice and one came in to give her a Barbie. Usually girly toys like that just annoy her, but she hung on to the Barbie and the ring it came with all night and we were so grateful to have it.  It made me really appreciate the projects of donations to hospitals that I have been a part of in the past.

By the time we were through with the pediatrician, the ER, the all-night pharmacy (where Marty also bought every type of M&Ms that currently exist), and the long drive home, it was about 2:30 AM.  We walked in the door to see Clara asleep on top of Kelly (also asleep) in the front room. We put Camille in our bed surrounded by pillows helping to prop up her swollen little arm and HUGE splint.

The next morning we waited and waited for her to wake up.  I really didn't want her waking up alone.  Marty went downstairs with the big kids and my mom came over and held Clara while watching Camille so that I could shower and take care of a few things while waiting.  I put together a basket of snacks, drinks, toys, and the M&Ms that we could have next to her wherever she was settled. Finally she started to stir and the rest of that morning was pretty ugly.  She was so traumatized and in so much pain and no matter what I tried I couldn't get her to take her pain meds.  I knew she needed to use the potty but she was so terrified to move her arm that she screamed and cried when Marty picked her up to take her.  That's pretty much how the whole day went until the evening.  I don't know what changed but she got brave and decided to get up herself to go to the potty.  I guess she realized nothing was going to happen to her arm inside of that big, bulky splint, and I'm thinking she was also bored to death of laying down.  Within about 30 minutes she was seriously jumping off couches and running around crazy like she always does.  I couldn't get her to settle down!  She is such a funny kid,  always one extreme or another. By that time it was pretty late and we tried to get her down for the night.  She spent the next week in our bed at night because her splint was so heavy that she would get twisted up in these weird positions where she wasn't strong enough to lift it and straiten it out.

A couple of days later we all were having some pretty serious cabin fever.  It was summer, so it was just SO hot.  We decided to all go to a movie and we brought Camille's precious Tigger pillow pet for her to get situated with.  I think she was pretty comfortable and happy to be there.

Grandma to the rescue!  Camille had almost no clothes that would fit over the splint (seriously, did it need to be THAT big?) so my mom bought her a couple of darling new shirts.

Marty and I took her to the nicest pediatric orthopedic surgeon ever and we got the good news that she didn't need surgery (yay!) and the bad news that she would need a cast for six weeks in the miserable AZ summer (boo!).  I wondered what in the world I was supposed to do with a wild girl like her all Summer long.  Looking back...what DID we do all summer?

With her super long hair and not being able to get the splint/cast wet in the bath, I would put on a movie and braid her hair, and we would just try to see how many days we could get out of it!

A week later, it was more bruised but not as swollen.

While she was waiting for the cast, the doctor walked by and asked her about her dog. It was a new dog from Grandma and Grandpa, and he asked her if the dog needed a cast.  She said yes, so that awesome guy found blue tape (because she told him she was getting a blue cast) and wrapped his arm up for her.  She thought it was the greatest thing ever and named her dog "Casty." Casty is still wrapped and he is one of her favorite toys.

Yeah.  So we talked her out of a black cast, which was her first choice.  I did try to steer her toward purple or one of the brighter colors, but she was determined to have blue.  Daddy was fine with that.

I am so, so, so, so, so, so grateful she has that brother.  What would she do without him?  Just this morning she was mad about something on the way to preschool and said she needed a Gabe hug.  So as they got out of the car they were about to run into Miss Cami's house and Gabe said, "Oh Camille, do you still need a hug?"  And she said, "Oh, ya!"  And they squeezed each other and smiled and ran off into the house.  There is definitely a reason we felt so strongly about having those two babies so close together.

Getting the cast off was had its own brand of trauma, but we survived!  Great job, Camille!  You are a STRONG little girl, tough as nails, and I am proud of you!