Broken

It has been a long time since I have blogged, particularly since I made any update on the girls or Will. But there is, sadly, a very good reason for this. Poor little Will broke his arm last Sunday. Not only has it been super hard hearing our poor boy cry out in pain so much, but its been really rough dealing with a little 3 year old in pain and in a cast in the middle of summer with 3 month old twins.

Last Sunday night, Will was throwing a tantrum and he pulled and twisted away from Ellis in the middle of it in such a way that he broke his arm. It all happened so fast. Ellis immediately whisked Will to the ER and I met them there as soon as my parents arrived to watch the girls for me. We had thought that he had dislocated his elbow but, unfortunately, the x-ray showed a break.

The whole thing has been so traumatic and terrible. Ya'll please send up prayers and happy thoughts that Will's arm may heal soon. Amazingly, the orthopedist told us that he was so pleased with how Will's arm set in the cast that he thought it would be healed in just 3 weeks. I am trying so hard not to be too optimistic - we are supposed to be going to the beach in 4 weeks. However, other doctors and nurses we know do not think 3 weeks is too short of a time because Will is so young and his bones are still growing so quickly. I'm crossing my fingers and toes that we get good news -- we go back to the ortho for a follow-up x-ray tomorrow.

Everything about this has been very hard. This family has been through an awful lot in the last 3 months, but we come out of each challenge stronger and happier together. If anything, this incident has reminded me how fragile life is, how quickly it can all change, and how thankful I should be every minute for the health and wonder that are our children.

Will has been a trooper despite the pain I know he must have felt Sunday at the ER for his temporary cast and Monday when he got his permanent cast. Despite it all, he has been so incredibly cute. He totally hit on the x-ray technician in the ER when the medication hit him - he told her about the new Toy Story movie, asked her if she had seen it, and then told her that he would take her to see it the next day. He refers to the guy who put his cast on as "The Fixer." And he insisted on walking by himself all the way from the ortho's office to the car (a really long way down a long long building). He walked extremely slowly and got smiles from everyone who passed him.


His pain is now finally subsiding and he is able to do a lot more on his own. He has adjusted to his arm in a cast very well and is having fun staying home with mommy and his sisters. I am so glad because this past week has felt like a month, really. It has been very difficult keeping a 3 year old occupied so that he did not hurt his arm more and could stay relatively still (on top of having 3 month old twins to take care of). He has watched a whole hell of a lot of TV this past week.

Here he is dancing the hokey pokey in his spiffy cast. Will chose purple for Buzz Lightyear (who is lime green and purple). He calls it his "Buzz Lightyear arm." (My expensive Nikon camera is broken, won't flash, and I'm totally untrained to know how to fix it - thus the blurry pictures. Sigh.)