Broken Arm Saga

Sunday, Cullen decided to jump off of the desk chair after Andrew specifically told him not to do it.  But of course, he's 3 so he jumped.

Queue the crying.

Cullen hurt his arm pretty badly from a bad landing.  He didn't land on his feet.  Instead, he landed on his elbow.  I did not witness this particular jump since I was in the kitchen.  I did heard the crying and screaming.

After looking him over, Andrew and I couldn't see anything too out of the ordinary.  Cullen had somewhat calmed down but was obviously still not happy.

I knew something was definitely not right when Cullen refused to take a nap.  He just couldn't calm himself down, so I went and looked at his arm again.  After reviewing it further, I discovered his elbow was pretty swollen, hard as a rock, and he did not want it to be touched at all.

Off to a Urgent Care clinic, we went.

It was determined Cullen had a broken humerus.  The doctor put him in a splint and sling and sent us home with a referral to see an orthopedic surgeon.

Tuesday morning, I took Cullen over to Texas Orthopedics for his appointment.  After another round of X-rays, it was determined he has a supracondylar fracture of the humerus and another vertical fracture in his humerus.

What does this mean?

It means Cullen is having surgery Friday morning to have pins and possible wires put into his arm after an arthrogram is done to determine the amount of damage to his humerus.  Because of his age, the Orthopedic Surgeon wants to make sure the bones are set correctly and not moving in order for his arm to heal correctly.  The arthrogram is done because children's bones are not calcified, and he can't see the breaks exactly.  As the Orthopedist told me, from his experience, pins will be necessary but he wants to be absolutely certain hence the arthrogram.

For now, Cullen is in a long arm cast.  After surgery, he'll be in another long arm cast for 4-6 weeks at the minimum.

Prayers are needed that everything goes well.  Thank you!