After dinner Ez had put on some music and we were all just sitting down relaxing and thoroughly enjoying his little impromptu "show" mimicked by Angel, of course. When all of a sudden Kenji comes walking towards me in the state between crying and at loss of breath due to so much crying.
First I thought that maybe Angel had taken his toy away from him, as that happens often. But then I remembered that Angel was on the other side of the room having a great time with Ez. With that option out of the way I assume he fell or bonked himself during his play somewhere.
Since I didn't really know what had happened to him, I sat him on my lap and sought to comfort him. He stopped crying but still seemed to sob a bit about something. I asked him if he got hurt and he said yes, so I pursued to ask him where and he looked down at his little hand.
I took his hand in mine so I could check it and pray for it, but as I did he broke out crying again. At this point I was quite sure that something more had happened to him as he never cries likes that over a little fall or bonk, etc. I asked Angie if she had seen what happened as she was sitting on the side of the room where Kenji had walked from, but she hadn't.
By now his cry had a pitch of certain pain and I'll admit I was starting to get frantic and worried as obviously something was quite wrong with him, but I couldn't figure out what it was. He kept complaining about his hand/arm, or so I thought, so I started to take off his layers of clothes so I could get a closer look, but as I did he just seemed to yell out in more pain.
I only managed to take off his 2 sweaters as it was obvious by now that when I would touch/move his arm it would hurt him. Once his sweaters were off I was able to see the reason for his crying. His left arm seemed rather limp and I immediately slipped my hand in his shirt in an attempt to 'double check' or confirm the thought I had in my head.
I don't know if that was the smartest thing to do but in any case I had done it and when my fingers came in contact with a gap between his shoulder socket and his arm I felt nauseated. I was worried sick by now as I didn't know exactly what had happened to him or how it had happened and most importantly how serious his injury was.
I was also worried that perhaps he had fractured something or that I had made matters worse with all the movement I caused when trying to take his sweaters off and check his arm. During the whole time the above transpired Kenji was crying uncontrollably, perhaps the reason why it made me all the more uneasy and harder to keep it together.
I told mom I wanted to take him to the hospital and have it checked. I carried him in my arms ever so carefully as the slightest move would cause him great pain and we, mom, Angie, Jim and I with Kenji, at around 9:30 headed out towards the nearest hospital.
During our way to the hospital I kept praying for him, as I'm sure everyone else was, that it wouldn't be anything serious, no fractured bones or the like and that the healing process would be quick and with as little pain as possible. I was also whispering verses and key promises of prayer and healing in Kenji's ear and it seemed to calm him down to the point that during the last 5 minutes of our ride he dosed off.
We arrived at the hospital and made our way to the emergency wing. A sweet young doctor took a look at Kenji's arm and confirmed what we up to this point knew, that his arm had popped out of joint.
Now he didn't seem to think that Kenji had fractured anything, but just to make sure he asked for a couple of X-rays to be taken, as well as to be able to know to what side, etc., he needed to place the arm back in.
Once we took the X-rays the doctor took a look at them and said that indeed there were no broken/fractured bones and proceeded to pop his arm back in place with the help of another doctor to hold Kenji's face/neck still.
It was so hard for me to see him in so much agony crying out "mama, mama" and not be able to go to him and help him or make his "ouchy" go away. But I think all considering I did pretty well.
Once the doctors finished popping his arm back in place I carried Kenji, but I still noticed him cry when I'd touch his arm. I asked the doctor if he was certain that there was nothing else wrong with his arm as he still seemed in a lot of pain.
He assured me that there wasn't and said that his cry was due to his arm being sore from what had happened to him. He began to bandage his arm up and said he would have to keep the bandage on/immobilize his arm for 2 weeks in order to let it heal properly.
While the doctor did this Kenji began to cry and cry, just as he had before his arm was popped back in place and it was this continued crying as if something was still hurting him that made me uneasy. I asked the doctor if there was a children's bone doctor (traumatologo) on duty that I could see, but there wasn't, of course.
There was nothing more we could do about it then, so we headed back home and I braced myself for a long 2 weeks of caring and carrying Kenji, literally 24-7, as I knew that it would be difficult for him to walk and keep his balance with one arm only and I couldn't afford to have him fall on his little arm while it was recovering.
I didn't sleep much that night as Kenji was very restless and I was worried that he would roll over to his left side and hurt himself, to which he did twice and each time he did he cried quite a bit as if he had gotten hurt.
The next morning I told mom I didn't think everything was okay with Kenji's arm, as last night's doctor had said, and told her about how every time something would touch or rub up on his left arm he would cry as if something was hurting him.
God bless mom, she looked up some specialists and found a very sweet tramatologa who agreed to check Kenji up for free that very afternoon. TYJ! At her place she asked about what had happened, how it had happened, etc.
(By now I found out just what had happened last night to Kenji. Apparently someone got him by his hands/wrists and raised him up. While doing so I guess they lost a bit of their grip on him due to the various layers he had on and they tried to yank him up again, as I suppose they felt he was going to fall or something, and as such Kenji ended up as he did.) :(
She then took off Kenji's shirt and bandage and upon doing so his forearm naturally fell from his tummy to his side and when it did he began crying in pain, again. She noticed this. I began explaining what the doctor had done/said and how I though that something was still hurting him due to his crying.
She got up and took a closer look at the X-ray and came back and asked me to distract Kenji for a bit, while I did she took his left hand in one had and his elbow in another and "whala." Kenji cried a bit during the process, but once she was done he stopped his crying.
It was then that she told us that the reason he had still been in pain throughout the night was because his elbow had popped out of place as well, (good Lord) but now that she had put it back in place he shouldn't feel any pain.
The specialist told us that most doctors, unless they're specialist, always think that when an infant has an accident like Kenji's that it's the shoulder that pops out, but she said that usually it's the elbow. But because kids' bones are so little it's very hard to see this through and X-ray.
Kenji wasn't crying anymore but he still wouldn't move his fingers or hand, something I also noticed he wasn't doing the night I took him to the doctor.
She brought him a little hand puppet tiger and asked me to try to get him to move his fingers.
I attempted to get him to touch the tigers nose but nothing came of it at first. She told me to hold the puppet right in front of his hand, I was holding it way up by his face, duh. And he ever so slowly moved his little index finger.
I was so happy at that moment (I think I cried) and I encouraged him to go ahead and touch the tigers nose. Again his index finger and the rest of his fingers moved and he tapped the tigers nose, which was less than an inch away from his hand but still meant great progress overall.
This time the specialist told me to place the tiger at his shoulders' length and see if he would touch his nose. I did as she instructed, this time obviously it meant he would have to move not only his finger/s but his arm and wrist as well, and I wasn't sure if he would do it, but he did!
It took a while for him to get his arm up to his shoulders' length and it took even more effort on his part to coordinate his finger to touch the tigers nose as at first his finger as if by some magnetic force would go the the sides of the tigers nose rather than his nose. But he finally did it!
I was so happy that his arm and hand were back to normal that I couldn't stop smothering his arm and hand with kisses as tears of thankfulness rolled down my eyes.
Once I got my act back together she told me that as a professional kids bone specialist she thought it best to let Kenji go ahead and use his little arm at his own pace, rather than immobilize it for 2 weeks. Yay! Another answer to prayer!
Anyways, that's the story of his first accident at the age of 16 months and the testimony of how the Lord completely healed him in less than 24 hours within getting hurt. Thanks to all who prayed for him.
Here he is the very same afternoon his elbow was fixed. You'd think he'd take things a little slower or at least be a good boy, but no, he's back to his own happy little self; mischievous, of course.
His Aunt Liz covered him in kisses and instead of putting on his "angel" face for the camera, he puts on his "rascal" one. Tsk, Tsk.
Trying out Angie's sunglasses ...
Yeah, don't think those flatter you, my love. :)
