Cupcake's Broken Arm

Oh this makes me cringe inside just looking at these photos and reading the story again.  For this post I am going to share the story as I wrote it almost one year ago.  I keep a separate document on our computer for each of our children filled with their firsts, funny things they say, and stories about them.  This was taken from Cupcake's page:

5/22/13 BROKE YOUR ARM.  You try to be like Princess and do what she's doing all the time.  You guys like to climb onto the couch and jump off into a sea of pillows.  Well, within the last week or so you have discovered that if your little princess castle is right next to the couch you can use it to climb up the side and stand on the arm of the couch just like Princess does.  You are so thrilled with yourself when you do this you put both arms up above your head and pronounce "TA DA!!" and then either fall or jump onto the couch.  I warn both of you girls all the time not to do that.  I ask you and threaten you to stop.  I just knew one day someone would get really hurt. 

So it was one of my worst nightmares that night when you climbed up onto the side of the couch, stood up and put your arms over your head and then fell to the floor- the part that did not have a thousand pillows all over it, of course.  I was feeding Baby E and did not see you fall.   Only heard you cry out in pain after a loud THUD and looked up to see your arm bent unnaturally in the middle of the forearm.  I knew it was broken immediately.

I yelled out to Daddy "SHE BROKE HER ARM!!!"  He was in the kitchen and rushed over saying "OH NO!" and  picked you up and held you.  Both of us audibly moaning out load, so worried for you.  I practically threw the baby in the car-seat and yelled at Princess to put her shoes on.  You were so dirty and sticky from two days of playing and sugary treats without a bath.  You were only in your diaper, like most days, so I ran to your room to get some clothes so you didn't look like a little homeless girl at the hospital.  It took me a few minutes to realize that your sweet sissy Princess was sobbing and when I looked into her face it held pure terror for you.  She has always heard that a hospital is where you go when you are really sick/hurt and that you could die there.  She loves you so much, it really touched me that she was crying for you.  I reassured her (and myself) that you would be ok.  That the doctors would help you and then quietly said a prayer to ask that this would be the case. 

The bones were not sticking out, but your arm was still a little deformed.  We had to drop Daddy off at the church quickly for a meeting and then rushed off to the nearest hospital in American Fork- about 20 minutes away.  On our way Princess and I sang songs to you but after about 10 minutes it didn't seem to help anymore.  Our DVD player in the van doesn't accept DVD's most of the time and I had been trying to get it to take one for the last two days; but I tried again, praying it would work, and miraculously it took a movie and played it.  Finally you calmed down to watch a movie. 

I dropped off Princess and Baby E at Grandma M's so that I could focus totally on you.  We got to the emergency room and we got in pretty fast.  They gave you priority over some other patients since you were a child.  It was really relieving to me.  You started crying and whimpering again.  I told you stories about the black kitty, your friend K, and other little things you usually liked.  We counted things in the room and sang more songs.  But when we got onto a bed and I was holding you is when you started talking about "choo-choos".  It took me a while to realize you had seen an oval IV track on the ceiling and thought it was a train track.  So we talked about choo-choo's all night in the ER and I finally told you the story of "The Little Engine That Could".  You asked for that story over and over. "Choo-choo.  Again" in your sweet little voice.   I'm sure I said it at least 10 times. 

We had to do x-rays of your arm.  Which was hard because you were so tiny and I had to hold your poor hurting arm in place long enough to take the x-ray.  Sure enough- both arms in the forearm were fractured.

Then it was time to set it.  They gave you a little dolly to hold and a nice quilt to cover you.  I chose to have you sedated- which meant an IV.  It was in an effort so you wouldn't feel the pain or be anxious when the doctor put your bones back into place.  Sadly- they couldn't get the needle in a vein just right and tried 3 separate times.  We all tried so hard to distract you but you screamed the whole time.  It was terrible to watch and to hold you while you endured that.  Finally it went in.  It was so sad because you couldn't even hold the doll they gave you because one arm was broken and the other had a big, painful IV stuck in it.   Then  they gave you the medicine to put you out.  But the doctor  was a little too quick and I think you must have still felt something when he set your arm because you were arching your back and whimpering.  Poor thing.  I wanted to cry but I was just so worried watching you.  It was the first time all night I wasn't able to hold you.

But after that you were completely zonked out.  You had missed your nap that day and by this point it was a few hours past your bedtime.  We finally managed to wake you up and they gave you a pink sippy cup with apple juice.  When we were able to leave, we went and picked up Baby E and Princess and  Grandma came to see you in the car.  We picked up an ice cream cone for you for being so brave in the hospital.  

When we got home K's Daddy came over to help Daddy give you a blessing.  Then we set you up in bed with ice on your arm and you zonked out for 12 hours straight.

Now, 2 days later you are handling it surprisingly well.  You are very attached to your doll- (we named her Tiana) your quilt and your sippy cup all from the hospital.  

 Every so often you will stop and whimper a bit and say "Arm. Broke. HURT."  You have asked what your cast is and I taught you the word so now you tell me your cast hurts or you bonked yourself with your cast.  But other than that you are a normal 2 year old.  It is almost impossible to get you to sit still to prop up your arm and keep ice on it.  I feel so bad this happened right at the start of summer when you want to be outside playing and climbing and getting in the water.  The doctor said it should heal in 3-4 weeks and that you should heal quickly/easily because you are so young.  I'm so sorry little Cupcake!  I wish you didn't have to go through this at such a young age!  You are so sweet and make us laugh every day!  What a great example of positive attitude you are to me! -Love Mommy

A week later she got her "real" hard cast.  We chose pink and she was so brave again as they switched casts.   She got plenty of suckers and stickers, and I bought her another ice-cream cone on the way home.

 We looked for books about broken bones at our library to help the girls understand what was going on inside Cupcake's arm.  They only had one.  And it was a little... odd.  And confusing.  In fact, we came away with the understanding that strange cannibal monsters and octopi are responsible for repairing broken bones in your body.  See what I mean:

 Yeah.  We gave up on that book after one read but they still talk about it.  We all signed her cast and drew pictures on it which made her so happy.  She would point out to people the pictures and who drew them.

After 4 weeks she was all healed and could take the cast off.  Here she is sitting in the waiting room, quiet with anticipation:

 Again- another brave performance among tears while they cut the cast off and then her arm was free!  More stickers, suckers,and ice cream again. She has a little fear of doctors/dentists and all things related now- but she handled the entire experience like a champ!  Her arm is better than ever.  Those octopi sure knew what they were doing I guess! ;) 
In the car checking out her "new arm":

Now almost a year later she still remembers breaking her arm and how she did it.  And she can still tell you all about it. And as a true mother I get to remind all of the kids "don't do that or you will break your arm like Cupcake!".   Yeah.  I'm mean like that.