Blake's Broken Arm

On Christmas Eve the kids were really getting wound up. I suggested they go outside to burn some energy. They took the dog for a nice walk, but when the returned Emily was begging to go to the playground. I was busy wrapping presents and talked Blake into taking her for a few minutes. He didn't want to go, but did for me. About 10 minutes later I was still wrapping when Blake came in. "Mom" he said. "I've got some bad news. I think my arm is broke". No tears, no panic. He showed me that he could hardly move it. Now, all who know Blake know that he tends to be dramatic so I casually asked if he needed to go to the hospital He calmly said "no, I'm just going to sit down for a few minutes". He also explained that Emily had forgotten her doll and had went back for it. I could hear him starting to groan and fuss a little out on the couch and within a couple minutes he called out that he couldn't take it anymore. When I went to check on him his face was white and his lips were blue. Yikes! I quickly put some shoes on, and called Sam who was at work. I knew where the nearest hospital was, but wasn't sure if we REALLY needed to go there. I called an urgent care center who said they could do an xray, but had a 2 hour wait. Blake didn't want to go to the hospital, so we headed to the clinic. On our way, we noticed a closer one so we stopped in there. I went in first to make sure they could help us and then went out to get the kids. Blake never shed a tear and after about a half hour we were in the xray room. They wanted to start with just one picture to assess his condition. It took a few minutes to develop and when the doctor opened the door we could clearly see the break on the screen across the hall! I started to panic a little when the doctor started talking about surgery. He was kind enough to call an orthopedist he knew for a consult before sending us to the hospital. The ortho advised us to keep his arm immobilized until Wed morning when he could take a better look, but didn't think surgery would be needed, WHEW! So equipped with a sling, we headed home and were very grateful to the urgent care physician who saved us the expense and drama of a hospital visit.