Matthew's elbow, part 2

Last Thursday evening Jonathan told Matthew that he needed to clear the table. Instead, Matthew proceeded to ride on the over-sized exercise ball like a cowboy on a bucking bull, whooping it up. Unfortunately things did not end well for our hero. The "bull" bucked him off and he landed with his arm overextended. Crunch. He cried a bit and after that got if you'd been doing what you were supposed to be doing you wouldn't have gotten hurt from his father. He complained a bit about it hurting and we iced it, but there wasn't any swelling to speak of and he was still bouncing off the walls, so we didn't think too much about it.

The next day he was still complaining a bit about his elbow but said it only hurt when he straightened it all the way or when he tried to touch his shoulder. Since he didn't seem to be in too much discomfort, we sent him to school, but after school he still didn't like moving it. It looked to me like he needed to head to the doctor's office.

The timing could have been better. Jonathan's car wouldn't start, and I had a dinner to deliver to a friend.

Matthew's orthopedic clinic fit him in with the PA in a different office building, since his doc was in surgery for the rest of the day. I had an hour before we had to leave, so I threw together a dinner of chili. muffins, and a chocolate M&M pie, all while entertaining Isaac.

At 4:15 it was time to:

• Drop Melissa off at her gymnastics class,
  
• Drop off the dinner,
• Take Jon and Matthew to the clinic. It turned out to be quite a bit further down the freeway than either of us expected, but where else could we find a place open and ready to see Matthew at 5 PM on a Friday?
  
• Go back to pick up Melissa. Freeway traffic was bad, so I took the back roads, and it was still terrible. To top it off a blasted train decided to go past, and it was loooooooooooong! Grr! Fortunately Isaac mostly napped and when he wasn't zonked he took the trip with pretty good grace. I arrived 10 minutes late to gym class and collected Melissa,
• Turn around and go back south again to pick up Matthew and Jonathan. Our timing was good and we arrived just as they were walking out of the building,
• And pick up the babysitter for our date night!
  

Matthew was sporting a splint and grinning. The x-rays didn't show an obvious break, but as we learned the first time, growth plate fractures don't necessarily show up on x-ray immediately. Either it's a sprain, or he broke it and the fracture just isn't visible yet. He has a follow up appointment with his doctor tomorrow, and we should know more then. According to Jonathan, Matthew charmed the lady who applied his splint. She thought he was just too adorable and so polite.

[Post by Rachel with edits by yours truly, by request]