The Broken Clavicle a.k.a. the Collar bone

Wait just a minute..

Do you want to see me do something bad?

#1

#2

#3

#4 - He got a hold of Zachary's window crayon. When I first saw it, it looked like blood!

#5 - He didn't stop with just getting it on his face, but all over the chair and the pillows.

#6 - You got a little something right there...in your teeth.

#7 - That him getting behind the table to unplug everything.

He has been a mover since he was a baby so it's no surprise that he started climbing right after he started walking. For those of you that don't know, I acquired a free train table for the boys. As much as Lucas loves trains, I knew this table would be golden! Hopefully keep the pieces off the floor and in a slightly more contained area. It worked well for a few weeks until the day of my birthday... Wesley climbed up the table and just as I was turning around to get him off, he twisted and fell off the table. He just kind of fell like a log right onto the ground. As I picked him up to soothe him, he kind of stopped for a few mins and then would start crying all over again. Hearing a different cry each time, I looked him over from head to toe finding nothing. Yes a few scratches and I red spot on his cheek, but that was it. I knew after a few rounds of this and the pure sound of his cry something was really wrong. Call it a mother's intuition. A mother KNOWS when things are wrong. I called my sister Charleen (our family RN) to see what I was missing. In the awesome non-panicking mother attitude she told me to check his clavicle. His what? His collar bone to see if there was a bump. Sure enough it definitely had a bump. Off to the ER we went, but luckily for me Jason was working from home that day so I didn't have to drive us by myself. I felt like throwing up every time I heard 'that cry'. I couldn't find a non hurting position to hold him. 15 min drive of P.U.R.E. torture. As we were in the waiting room to be called back, a flashback came sweeping in from 4 years ago to the date when Zachary had fallen for the second time breaking his arm. My birthday is now cursed. I wish it went hand in hand with not aging! He was in lots of pain and luckily the X-Ray tech didn't have to twist him to get a good X-Ray. We even heard the doctor call to another nurse to check out his X-Ray. What came after was a 'whoa'. Wesley was so tired that he passed out from the days events. We left the hospital with an itty bitty arm sling and a good luck for the next 4 weeks. Apparently clavicle breaks are VERY common among small children. It's one of the only bones that isn't completely harden. The first night was rough on us all. I slept in the chair holding him to keep him from rolling onto his arm. He is a stomach sleeper and a right handed thumb sucker. Neither of which he was able to do while in that sling. The sling proved to be completely useless. It kept twisting and turning. Adjusting it hurt him. What a pain. A few days later we went in to see the Orthopedic doctor. He advised to use what they call a figure 8. It's basically a brace that crossed on his back like a horizontal '8' to help keep his shoulders in line so they could heal the straightest. It was a bugger to find, because he was so small. I got lucky and found a place that was still open. It was the best $16 dollars. Unless your child is old enough to understand that they should keep their arm in the sling, it's not a problem.  Wesley just wanted to keep at it until he lifted it too high and it hurt again. I'm glad to say that since then he has healed and no longer requires a brace. He still has a bump there, but the Doctor believes that it won't be noticeable the older he gets as the bone there too gets bigger. Here is picture time line:

The only positive that he learned how to drink out of a straw really well. 

Free at last!