broken collar bone

I went walking today. I didn't have a pocket for my phone so I left it in the van. When I got back and checked my phone there was a text message from Aaron, "home asap." I quickly drove home to find Nathaniel snuggled up on Aaron, keening softly, asking for me and saying that his neck hurt. Turns out he had fallen off of his bunk bed. Any movement in his arm caused him to cry so I headed took him to the after hours clinic for x-rays. My suspicions were confirmed, a broken collar bone. Our active little guy is supposed to keep his arm in a sling and as still as possible for about 3 weeks. I have no idea how we are going to do that!

A number of people have suggested wrapping his arm to his side with ace bandages. We did that tonight before bed time and it seemed to help. We will probably wrap it this way for a few weeks. (Note: We wrapped it wrong in this picture. The over the shoulder strap is supposed to go over his good shoulder not his bad shoulder. We fixed it right away.)

Once again Nathaniel charmed all the nurses and had the doctor chuckling as he recounted his fall and injury in great detail. He only complained about the pain when he moved his arm. We'll see how he copes with the pain in the next few days.

Yesterday Nathaniel was running around the playground with a stick in his hand. He was waving it around like a gun. He was also running up and down the slides with his stick. It was obviously dangerous and clearly an accident waiting to happen. I joked with my friend that Nathaniel needed more than one guardian angel, he needed a whole legion.

Tonight I snuggled both boys a little longer before bed time. Jeremiah is on the brink of turning 6, time slipping away. And Nathaniel's injury could have been much worse. I was reminded today to cherish the precious, fleeting moments.