On the Mend

The full birthday story:
Jack's sixth birthday started out like this! Oh, so very happy! We went bowling and out for pizza with Ethan's hockey team to celebrate the end of the season. They had a great time! From there, we went straight to Jack's party. This year, we were having it at the Great Escape. It's a giant indoor adventure playground, like a Chuck E Cheese on steroids. Jack really begged to go there for his party, and I obliged because I thought it would be easier than trying to pull together an at-home party in four days once I got back from Whistler. All I had to bring was cake and goody bags! So I cut a cake into a rectangle, iced it white, and took 5 minutes to throw some candy on top. Voila! A Wii controller - the kids loved it, and it was easily the easiest cake I've ever done! We only had a total of 8 kids at the Great Escape, including Jack, Ethan, Liam and Kieran. It was manageable with 4 of us adults to supervise! The kids took off, climbing, playing, sliding. They were all red and sweaty within 10 minutes. Within 30 minutes, though, the older boys came running to tell me that Jack had hurt his arm on the slide. Rob and Mike were right there and brought Jack back to the party room. It was pretty obvious his arm was hurting badly. We got some ice, but we couldn't even touch it.

We decided he needed to go to the ER. We got all the kids back to sing Happy Birthday to Jack and have cake before he left. The little man couldn't even eat a marshmallow. Look at this picture, doesn't it break your heart? I made him a sling out of my sweater. Mike took him to the ER, while I stayed and waited for the other moms to come and pick up their kids. Of course, I hadn't taken cell phone #s, so I had to wait 90 minutes before we could go! Luckily, Ethan, Victor and I were all able to fit into Briana and Rob's van with Liam, Kieran, and all their Ikea shopping too! We went home to wait for news from Mike.

He phoned about an hour later to tell us that Jack had indeed broken his arm - a clean break just above the elbow. He got his arm set in a temporary half-cast, to allow for swelling, and we'll have to get a new cast on Friday. Jack didn't even take anything for the pain until we made him take some Tylenol at 8 pm. Nearly 5 hours on a broken arm with no pain medication!!!

He had a rough night the first night. Every time he rolled over, he woke up crying. I brought him into our bed at midnight. We didn't sleep much until 5 am. I'd given him Tylenol again at 4 am, and he finally slept from 5 until almost 9 am. But he was feeling good enough the next morning to play with Ethan and his cousins. We walked to the beach and saw Grandma and Granddad in the afternoon. He was in good spirits. A little Advil before bed, and he slept well last night. Today we got him a better sling and even managed a bath! He's looking forward to going back to school so that all his friends can sign his cast. He is SUCH a trooper!