Casey and the ER

Back around Christmas or so, my younger son Casey hurt his hand at school.  He said he was mad about something and punched his locker.  The hand swelled up quite a bit on the pinky side and he said it hurt but there was no bruising or anything, and he didn't seem too agonized so we just gave him some Tylenol and put some ice on it and didn't think much of it.  Fast forward to earlier this month, and he's saying his hand still "kinda hurts" and that his pinky knuckle looks out of place.  One of his teachers suggested he get it checked, so Casey asked if we could make a doctor appointment for it.  A couple days later he's sent from the doctor at the clinic to a nearby hospital for xrays.  Ah, turns out he had indeed broken his finger or knuckle or something in that area.  The doctor wanted him to see orthopedic doctor, and the next day that ortho doctor said it should be fine and there isn't really any treatment.  He said even if we'd seen him at the time he probably wouldn't have done anything.

Ok, so today is my day off and I'm about to leave the house to go shopping when I hear the phone ring.  It's Casey's voice on the answering machine so I answer it, and he says he hurt himself again and could I come and get him?  I asked what had happened and he said he'd fallen in gym class and messed up his arm.  I could hear the teacher in the background saying he really needs to get it looked at.  So off to school I go.

When I pick him up he looks rather miserable.  The gym teachers had tied his sweatshirt into a makeshift sling and given him a bag of ice.  As we're driving back home, Casey explains that they were doing some running exercise when he slipped and fell, tried to catch himself, landed on his hand and wrenched his shoulder.  He said he couldn't even move it without a lot of pain.  We all figured it was dislocated.

We stopped at home so I could call the clinic that we go to.  They said to just go to the ER because they'd do xrays and if it really was dislocated they'd sedate him and pop it back into place.  I didn't tell Casey that part of it, but had him take some Tylenol and we headed off to the hospital.

In the ER they checked his vitals and all that good stuff, asked a bajillion questions, asked him to rate his pain on a scale of 1-10 . . . and he said "about 7 or 8."  They gave him a shot for the pain and took him to get xrays done.  When they brought him back to the room the nurse said it would be just a few minutes while the doctor looked them over.  So in those minutes, Casey was rearranging his shirt or something and suddenly says "Heyyyy . . . "  I look up from the book I'd been reading to see him moving his arm around like nothing was wrong.

"I think it popped back," he says, still moving his arm around, testing it.
"Huh?!  No way," is my brilliant reply.  "Does it hurt when you do that??"
"No, not at all.  Not until I get it up . . . *wince* . . . here," he says and drops his arm again.
"Does it feel like it's back to normal?" I ask.  He is still moving his arm, and reaching over to feel his shoulder.
"Oh yeah, I can even feel the difference from the outside," he laughs in relief.

I give him a look like 'Un.Freakin.Real.'

The nurse comes back in and says they're going to be ready in just a moment to get his IV going for the sedation, that he'll only be asleep for a little bit, and they'll move his shoulder back into place.  And she starts to leave again.

"Um, wait," we both speak up.  Casey tells her it feels better now, like it's popped back in.

She assures us that "Ohhhh, no.  That shoulder is out of place.  I saw the xrays.  They'll fix you up in a bit."

We try telling her again that it's fine now, he can move it.  She insists the xray shows it's out of place.  No NO, we try to make her see . . . and tell her it's just happened since they brought him back from xray.  I point out that he can move it now.  She finally pauses, looks, and seems surprised, then says the doctor will have to look at it again and they'll probably do more xrays to be sure.

So we wait a bit longer and the doctor comes back in, laughing a bit and asking if it really popped itself back in.  He feels Casey's shoulder and asks him some questions, and says it does indeed seem to be back in place.  They send him for more xrays to be sure.

Sure enough, it's popped itself back into place.  Rating his pain at this point, he says there is none.  They immobilize his shoulder with a wrap/sling thing, tell him to take Tylenol or ibuprofen as needed, and give him a note to get out of gym for a week.  He'll need to see that ortho doctor again in 2-4 days for a followup and he'll decide if the wrap can come off and if everything is ok.

That followup appointment in on Thursday . . . his 18th birthday.  lol

This kid, I tell ya!