During a "time out" on Sunday morning, January 17th, Pablo crawled out of his crib--a first. Mari and I were downstairs with Nina and Emi when we heard the thump, the scream, and the cry. After I collected him and carried him downstairs to examine the damage, I saw that his obviously broken right forearm was bent down and then up again a couple of inches below the wrist. Hearts broke. We promptly loaded everyone in the van and headed to the Valley View emergency room. Mari sat in the back seat with Pablo in her lap so that she could support his arm. Mari stayed with Pablo in the emergency room, I took Emi and Nina back home and called kin in Fort Worth. By the time Mom arrived a few hours later, Nina and Emi had napped and I had collected Mari and Pablo from the hospital.
The ER staff confirmed the break, wrapped the arm in a pad and the gauze you see in the photo at left, and advised us to get an appointment with an expert. They did not "set" the bone, as I suspected they would, since the dislocation was so marked. I thought it would be easier to set it sooner rather than later when swelling set in, or when swelling had come and gone and the bone itself had started to solidify.
Monday morning I got an appointment with Dr. Charbonneau for Thursday. I was concerned that we would have to wait so long without a specialist at least looking at it, but I was told that based on the description given by the ER doctor, such a wait was common practice. I managed to get to another bone specialist in town to look at the X-ray, and he confirmed that waiting would not be a problem. Mom agreed to stay until they put a cast on it.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Emergency management, "early Thursday morning freezing rain moved into southwest Oklahoma and spread northeast into Oklahoma City. This area of precipitation continued to spread east and northeast. Central Oklahoma received 0.5 inches of freezing rain, followed by sleet and ending with 4-6 inches of snow. At the height of this storm, approximately 180,000 meters were without service.... Many towns were without power for days."
Dr. Charbonneau says that both of Pablo's right forearm bones are fractured. One is of the "greenstick fracture" variety (snapped on one side, but not the other). The ER doctor thought the angulation was 30; Dr. Charbonneau says it is less. Dr. Charbonneau also says that because Pablo is so young, the bone will straighten itself out at a rate of about one percent each month as he grows up. Long before it is completely straight, though, the bend will not be evident to the naked eye.
During a "time out" on Sunday morning, January 17th, Pablo crawled out of his crib--a first. Mari and I were downstairs with Nina and Emi when we heard the thump, the scream, and the cry. After I collected him and carried him downstairs to examine the damage, I saw that his obviously broken right forearm was bent down and then up again a couple of inches below the wrist. Hearts broke. We promptly loaded everyone in the van and headed to the Valley View emergency room. Mari sat in the back seat with Pablo in her lap so that she could support his arm. Mari stayed with Pablo in the emergency room, I took Emi and Nina back home and called kin in Fort Worth. By the time Mom arrived a few hours later, Nina and Emi had napped and I had collected Mari and Pablo from the hospital.
