Between our two families, there were 8 kids so the playground went from empty to busy in an instant.
About 10 minutes after arriving, Pudge fell off the spinning monkey bars.. They're domes that rotate as you climb on them.
These: (picture from a different day and is Little Bear...)
At first, I thought that he was only slightly hurt and would be fine so we put a cold metal water bottle against it for a minute. Right after he fell, one of the kids friends found a little painted rock on it that said "smile" (It is part of a trend here where people paint and hid rocks around to brighten people's days and then you can keep them or reside somewhere else) and gave it to Pudge to help him feel better. His wrist then started swelling and he was still crying so my friend whose child had recently broken their wrist (twice!) in the same way, took a look at it. When she looked up and gave me the wide eyes, I knew that we needed to hightail it to the dr. So we loudly made our way to the car (one child crying in pain and one crying because they didn't want to leave the playground that they just started playing at.. thankfully the other two were fine and/or helpful.) Our friend had ice in her van (we had planned to have a picnic) and put some in a bag for Pudge to have for his arm which was much better than the cold water bottle. As soon as we got in the van, I started to look up directions to the ER and also call Papa to let him know we were headed there. (While still parked and talking to Papa, Little Bear realized that he had forgotten his sweatshirt and hopped out to grab it and then ran back to the car). Then we were off.
When we got to the children's ER, both younger kids were asleep. So I put Cuatro on my back, woke Pequeño and convinced him to get out of the car (apparently he was "sooooo tired") and Little Bear helped unbuckle Pudge so we could help him out of the van. (I forgot my phone in the car.) Overall, the kids did a great job during our time there. Between being in the waiting room, seeing the doctor, X-rays, and having a soft cast made, we were there around 4 hours (which spanned over lunch and naptime and there were no complaints). Right before we left, one of the nurses asked if it was okay for the kids to have a snack after Pequeño asked if we could get something to eat on the way home so they each got a snack bag of goldfish and an apple juice cup.
Pudge' wrist and elbow were both broken during the fall and the elbow was also dislocated.
(After we were back in our driveway, he said "Good thing I had my rock in my pocket!" and showed me that he had kept it with him during the hospital visit.)
The next morning, I had to make him an appointment with the orthopedist to get a hard cast. Unfortunately, they needed to take additional X-rays because the ones that they had for the ER weren't enough to rule out surgery. He had a tough time because it was very painful to turn his arm in the ways that they needed but he got them done and didn't need to have surgery. They are expecting the cast to be on for 4-6 weeks however he has a follow up at 3 weeks and there is a *small* possibility that it would be okay by then.
(We didn't even attempt to change his shirt with the soft cast on because he had been in so much pain from any jostling)
He got to pick what color he wanted and we requested the kind that he is able to get wet since we still have the pool open and would be going on vacation towards the later end of his projected timeline (if it's not removed before then).
To celebrate how brace he was, we went to one of his favorite places... the fish hatchery. As we were getting out of the car, we saw a bald eagle flying over the fish and into the woods which was really neat.
We got one bag of fish food and he sat and fed them in a few different spots.
(Cuatro was there with us all day too and was ready for a snack and nap at this point)
We stayed for about 45 minutes before we needed to leave to pick up the other boys from school. Pudge fell asleep on the way to get them and spent most of the evening sleeeing as well.
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