Jacob isn’t as steady on his feet as he once was.  He is still twirling constantly.  For most of his life, we, and others, were amazed at his balance.  He would never even appear dizzy.  Over the last couple of years, though, we’ve seen a twirl turn into a fall too much.  It is the main self-stimming behavior we see in Jacob. 

Recently, though, he wasn’t twirling when he fell.  He was reaching for his dad, missed and lost his balance, falling backward into a table and hitting the tile floor.  We both saw it happen.  He jumped up and started squeezing his hands as if that was what hurt.  I did think his hands took the force but his head also hit the table.  We looked him over then and didn’t see a mark of any sort.  Later, his dad noticed him favoring his right arm.  Twice before bed, I checked him over for evidence of the impact.  At bedtime, there were still no marks.  But, the next morning we saw this:

My heart just sank. I am sure that hand was throbbing. So swollen. We quickly sent photos through the portal to his doctor and tried scheduling an e-visit. Within minutes, MINUTES, his doctor called us. Switched to Facetime so he could get a look at Jacob’s hand. “It could be broken.” “He might have sprained it.” “Ligaments could have been over-stretched.” “His hand may look a little different when it heals.” Knowing the treatment for a broken figure is usually taping to the next was one of the treatments we were expecting. Icing was another plus something for pain.

Jacob tolerated icing for 15 minutes the first day. We were so pleased that he sat still and kept it wrapped in ice. The next tries were a different story. Wouldn’t allow ice for a minute and immediately took the compression wrap off. We were left with our only tools, prayers and pain meds.

A trip to the doctor might have involved an x-ray. That alone would have been very tricky to accomplish. Then referring to a specialist. We opted to watch it for a couple of days and call the doctor back if we needed him to take a look in person.  While I’d like to have known what was going on, as long as he was comfortable, that seemed to be the best route.

Jacob has always had a high threshold for pain.  In times like this, I’m able to not freak out over the ‘how bad that must hurt’.   We know the physical cues that indicate when something isn’t right.  In this case, we felt he was hurt but it didn’t appear outwardly for 18 hours. 

Our middle granddaughter was concerned—”how do you know when Jacob is in pain?”  Good question.  It is all about observation.  He will fidget more, maybe fuss, grimace, hands over face, etc.   You better believe I am watching very closely when I know something has happened. This one shocked me how swollen, how purple and red it was the next morning.

He did get some special treats he likes because, well he’d had an accident and this mom wanted him to feel pampered.  Donuts.  Donuts make everything better, right?  And chocolate milk.  He loves the stuff but doesn’t get it often.  Those two things were happily received!! 

Funny thing about Jacob is he doesn’t ‘milk it for all it’s worth’. He goes about his business not expecting any more than usual. (Which can be a lot on any given day.)

Ten days later, his hand is still not back to how it was before but looks much better. Thanks to prayers and pain meds, he isn’t bothered and we are relieved!!