Aaron’s Injury

Aaron took a spill last week in his desk chair.  We had been out all day to a doctor appointment, lunch, and a movie.  When we got home, I offered to fix him some apples and peanut butter.  I put his snack on the bookshelf right beside his desk, where I put his cups of coffee in the morning.

I was all the way downstairs later when Aaron came in the room and told me that he had fallen.

“On the stairs?!” I asked.

“No,” he blandly answered.  “In my room.  I was reaching for my apples and peanut butter, and my desk chair fell.”

“Your whole desk chair fell over?” I asked.  “I didn’t hear that at all.”

“Well,” he continued, “you shouldn’t have put my apples and peanut butter on my shelf.”

“Why not?” I questioned.  “That’s where I always put your snacks.”

“Because,” he explained, “I had to reach for them and that’s why my chair fell.”

Why is it always Mom’s fault?!

So anyway, I asked him if he was all right and he said that he was.

I asked if he hit his head and he said that he didn’t.

There was no sign of anything wrong, so I didn’t worry.

That night, Aaron talked again about falling……and again mentioned the apples and peanut butter being on the shelf, where he had to reach out to get them.

Sigh.

The week went by, with Aaron occasionally talking about his fall…..always with those apples and peanut butter thrown in, of course.

A few mornings later, he told me that his upper arm hurt.  He and I figured it was how he had slept because sometimes he wakes up stiff and sore in an elbow or shoulder.  He didn’t act like it was a big deal and I didn’t make it one.

All this time, Aaron was wearing long sleeved shirts both during the day and at night to bed.  He wore long pants as well.  I never saw his arm until Sunday afternoon, five days after his desk chair fell.  Fell with him in it, because Mom had put his apples and peanut butter on his shelf……

Let’s not forget that little fact.  We won’t.  Not with Aaron around to press the issue.

So it was Sunday afternoon, and Aaron was taking a nap.  We were having a very hot day.  Aaron was wearing a short sleeve shirt.  And when I went in his room to wake him up from his nap, his arms were both raised over his head……and then I saw it.

Oh, my goodness!

He had awful bruising on the underside of his arm, from his upper arm to nearly his wrist.  Not only bruising, but also lots of swelling.  I was so shocked!

“Aaron!  What happened to your arm?!” I asked.

“I don’t know,” he replied.  “What’s wrong?”

I told him about the bruising and the swelling, but he couldn’t think of anything that had happened.  I asked more questions, and finally I remembered his fall in the desk chair.  That was it!  The chair had fallen to the right and the bruising was on his right arm……and on his right leg, we saw later, though not as severe as his arm.

Why on earth did Aaron not notice this?!  Is it because he’s color blind…..or that he doesn’t look at the underside of his arm…….or that he’s doing a less than stellar job in the shower?  It must have hurt, and I’m sure that’s what Aaron felt the morning he told me his arm hurt.  But still, how does one not notice such bad bruising?

I was feeling like the worst Mom!  You know, the kind who doesn’t check more thoroughly for injuries.  The kind who didn’t further explore the sore arm that morning.  The kind that puts apples and peanut butter on the shelf where Aaron had to reach for them.

I decided to take Aaron to the doctor on Monday, yesterday, just to rule out a fracture.  We didn’t think Aaron acted like he had a fracture, but we needed to be absolutely sure.

He told the nurse about his fall.  “Because I was reaching for my apples and peanut butter that Mom put on the shelf,” he made sure to say.

He didn’t see me roll my eyes.  I hope the nurse didn’t, either.

And he told his doctor, who gets a kick out of Aaron, about the desk chair falling.  “Because I was reaching for my apples and peanut butter that Mom put on the shelf,” he said AGAIN.

Yeah, yeah.

Aaron had X-Rays taken to rule out a fracture.  He handled that well, as he does most medical procedures, enjoying the attention and all the cool new things that were there to see and hear.

 

He showed everybody his arm, like the man who checked us in at the front desk and the lady who checked us in to X-Ray and the X-Ray tech and our neighbor and our friend that we delivered something to later……

Of course, he didn’t want to go to his day group today because of his bruised arm.  But I reminded him that he had gone all last week with a bruised arm, so he finally quit trying and he went on to Paradigm.  He rolled the window down quickly when he saw Antoine, his staff, as we pulled up.

“Hey, Antoine, look!!” he yelled.  Aaron popped up that arm as fast as he could and enjoyed Antoine’s reaction.  Then he chased Antoine around the parking lot as I pulled away.  So much for his very sore arm, right?

I learned today that there is not a fracture.  Thankfully, Aaron’s arm should be fine.  Soon there will be something new for Aaron to show off and tell about.  There always is, but hopefully the next thing won’t involve an injury like his cut foot at Thanksgiving that he showed off and now his bruised arm.

And if there is one, let’s all hope it’s not someplace like his stomach or some other body part that no one needs to see!

And that it does NOT involve apples and peanut butter THAT MOM PUT ON THE SHELF!!!