Encore, Encore!

Yep. Another broken arm. If I'm not mistaken, the third in six months. But who's really counting anymore? 

On Wednesday, the kids were all coming down the stairs from Addison and Bryn's room to have lunch, when Bryn tripped or slipped or who really knows what, and started to tumble. I was right at the bottom of the stairs and watched it all happen. She fell probably about six stairs, face-first, and then caught herself with her hands. And then she started to cry. Our Bryn is a pretty tough cookie, and she doesn't whine-cry. If she's crying, it hurts. So I ran over to her to check things out and saw that her arm looked just slightly crooked. My heart sank, but I tried to be brave for her, so I hugged her for a few minutes and then said we'd just go to the doctor to have them check it out and make sure everything was okay.

And it just so happens that Grandma was at our house at the time! She'd been planning to leave about three minutes after it happened, but was able to rearrange things and stay to take care of Addison and Leah. She got them through lunch and naptime and read books and held down the fort. Coincidence? I think not. We've had too many "coincidences" like that to think of them as such anymore.

Anyway, the arm was indeed broken, but not in as painful a way as last time she broke it. In fact, Bryn was playing with the toys at the doctor's office while we waited. We got my favorite x-ray lady. Very good bedside manner, super good with kids, and a heart of gold. Bryn was pretty bummed when she found out she had to have a cast again. And we were both really bummed when we found out it had to be an over-the-elbow one. It broke in a different place than last time. Last time was just below the elbow on the underside of the arm. This time was about in the middle of the forearm on the bone that's on top if you're shaking somebody's hand. Thank heavens for good insurance, eh?

To complicate things, she had to have the cast put on in a special way, so after they put her in a splint (leaving her with one arm out of its sleeve) we had to drive 30 minutes across town to the orthopedic specialist. We grabbed a corn dog on the way, which helped Bryn's outlook on life, and just as we arrived in the parking lot, she dumped her cup of ice water all over her lap. That coupled with the fact that she had no coat because her arm was broken, made getting inside difficult, as I juggled all our stuff and the giant blanket I'd happened to grab for her on the way out the door. And it was about 15 degrees and there was ice everywhere. I'm sure we were quite a sight.

We waited forever and Bryn fell asleep in my lap. It was wonderful. That never, ever happens.

She picked a green cast because it's her favorite color and also a Christmas color. They had to angle her hand outward because of where the break is. You can sort of see it in the picture. There's a muscle that pulls back on the bone and will continue to pull it out of place if they don't do it that way. So we go in next Wednesday for an x-ray to make sure it's working right, and if everything looks good she'll be in the long-arm cast until the Friday after Christmas, when they'll switch her to a short one, which makes a big difference convenience and comfort-wise.