First...Likely not the last...

Shortly after we left the house, we got a call from the sitter.
Micah fell and hurt his arm and he wanted to talk to us.
Through heavy sobbing and tears, we found out that Micah was standing on a blanket when Judah pulled it out from under him, making him fall on the ground. He was upset. Hurt. Devastated, I think. Judah is the more dramatic one. Micah gets hurt, wants sympathy, and then moves on pretty good. Unless we are not around.
We were not there to comfort, and he sobbed pretty hard. "It really hurts," he kept saying over and over. We tried to calm him, from over the phone.
"Got get elmo (a small, frozen, soft elmo to help boo-boo's), eat some pizza, and watch a movie and we'll be back soon."
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The sitter said he seemed mostly fine and it seemed like he was moving his arm okay. So we went on to our destination and returned a couple hours later.
When we got back, he said it still hurt pretty bad. And the sitter said he had hardly eaten any pizza and the movie was not helping. 2 of his favorite things did not help distract him from a little pain.
This made me think it was more than a little pain.
I felt both elbows with my hands and thought there could be some swelling, but I didn't want to overreact. I got something and measured the elbows. It was definitely swollen.
So, do I become the parent who overreacts (and goes that night to the emergency room) or the one who under-reacts (and doesn't do anything)? Or can I fall somewhere in the middle. I like the middle. I don't like extremes.
We decided we would put the boys to bed and see how it was in the morning.

Saturday morning was going to be great! Micah had been signed up for a free Karate lesson and I was going to take him to some yard sales and then breakfast on the way to the lesson. A great Saturday morning date with my little man...but he woke up still in pain and it was definitely still swollen.
I called the Pediatrician's office to see if it was "urgent" (since it was Saturday) and they said they would page the Dr. on call. We decided to continue on with our plans until we heard back from the doc.
We made it to three (great) yard sales and were on our way to the karate lesson when we heard back from a nurse who said, taking into account how we described everything, that we should come in. And there was an appointment in 20 minutes. Micah was quite disappointed to miss the lesson, but I was thankful to find out his pediatrician was the doctor in the office that day and we headed right over.
We were told the xrays were a little hard to read, but the good news was Micah shouldn't need surgery, but probably just a splint or cast. He said elbow injuries are tricky and often result in surgery. There was no where for us to go that day (since I didn't want to go sit in the emergency room) so Micah's doc called in a favor and got us in first thing Monday morning with an orthopedic doctor. The only thing was Micah had to agree to wear a sling until then. No playing, no bath, no being rough, no taking it off for bed...tough things for a 3 year old boy!

 Something I learned about Micah through this process so far that I don't think I had seen yet:
1. Micah was pretty tough. He said it hurt, but he was trying to do things as normal as he could and without complaining.
2. Micah likes his pediatrician very much (and so do we!) and he did not complain at all with all the twisting and turning and poking that he did. We were blessed it was his normal doctor!
3. Micah wanted to be strong and not complain to others. He did not cry about having the wear the sling until we got outside of the doctor's office.
4. Micah gets embarrassed and doesn't want to seem different or weak in front of people he knows and loves. He hid behind me when we got home with the sling on and Matt tried to come talk to him. He wouldn't stay with grandma like normal on a Sunday morning at church, and wouldn't even go to his normal class at church that he loves. He didn't want to "not be able to sing and dance with them," he said.

 I was very pleased that Micah's doctor called Sunday night to check in on him and make sure we knew the orthopedic doctor was expecting us in the morning. The above picture is me telling Micah to act like a monkey as I was seeing when it hurt the most and that he couldn't get his left hand to touch that armpit like the right one could. 

 This is after x-rays and waiting for the results from the doctor. He was doing great! I was trying to get a good picture of the swelling in the left arm, but he kept moving! But it's a great smile, and we don't see those from him often!!

 Watching very intently as the cast is getting put on.

 Quite intrigued by all that is happening to his arm, and with great spirits and responses through it all.

 Micah picked black. I thought for sure he would want blue, or maybe green. As long as it wasn't pink or purple, I was okay with him picking.

Micah, at 3 years old (4 years old in 3 months), with his first cast for a broken elbow. Hopefully this is it. A cast that gets taken off in a few weeks. Although the first doc said we would most likely not need surgery, this doc wasn't as sure. We do have to go back in one week to make sure that the bone that broke doesn't move any more. It did move (either in the fall or in the couple of days following) but as of right now it moved just enough that we wouldn't need surgery, but if it does move more there is still the possibility that surgery would have to happen. Let's pray this cast is it!