When I heard him awake & playing I rolled over, because yes, I was still in bed & started checking the messages on my phone. It got quiet for a minute then John just started wailing so I jumped out as bed & ran into his room & found him laying on his back in his crib with his right arm pinned & kind of twisted under himself. So, I pulled his arm straight out & it twisted/popped back into place. I hugged & comforted him for a few minutes until he calmed down & then when I thought he was okay, we went on with our morning routine of changing his diaper & making breakfast. I sat him in his high chair & started measuring out the oats for our oatmeal & again he started wailing so I looked over & noticed that his shoulder was kind of saggy. So I went over & looked at it as best as I could but it really didn't look like anything was out of place. I finished our oatmeal & tried feeding him but he just kept screaming every time he tried to move his arm.
I started to get a little panicked because if everything was fine, why was he still screaming? I sat him on my lap & he ate about half his oatmeal before he started crying again & squirming around. We went into the living room & I sat him on the floor with some of his toys which seemed to make him happy until he tried reaching his right arm out for a book. The screaming started again. He tried crawling & fell straight down; he couldn't support himself. That's when I called Nathan to ask him what a dislocated shoulder looked like because at this point that's what I was thinking was wrong. So he told me & I decided that I needed to call the health clinic on post. They told me that the doctors were only seeing soldiers that day (ummm, SERIOUSLY?!) but that they'd call me back. Okay... now I was just really upset. I sat there holding John trying to look at his shoulder to see if I could do something but he wouldn't let me touch it & honestly I was sick to my stomach that he was in so much pain that trying to touch his shoulders to compare each of them was hurting me. Just then, the health clinic called back & said that one doctor agreed to look at John at 2:40pm. It was just before 9am.... I said okay fine, we'll take the appointment. But I felt really uneasy & didn't think John could make it that long.
I was trying really hard to stay calm but by this time, all he was doing was screaming, so I was carrying him around the house trying to calm myself down & trying to think of what to do. I decided to give him some Advil & a bottle & lay him back down while I came up with a plan. He laid whining in his bed & that's when I decided he definitely couldn't wait until 2:40pm... we needed to go to the ER.
There's not a hospital on post. So that meant going to the Ansbach hospital. Great. No one is going to understand me... I don't even know where the hospital is at. I was trying to think of all the people I knew who spoke German who could possibly come along with me. The Relief Society President from church, Conny, is the one person who kept popping into my mind. I kept talking myself out of calling her for 15 minutes because I figured she was probably working or busy & I really didn't want to burden her. But I couldn't get rid of the prompting to call her. So I looked up her number & called. I was about to hang up because after several rings, there was no answer, & right as I was about to hit the end button she picked up & said of course she'd come with me. I immediately got John & drove to her house & off we went.
It's a good thing too because the only person who actually spoke English were the doctors & X-ray tech that John saw. The front desk lady, the nurse up in the Kinder care, & the paper work gal did not speak English, which is who we had to go through to even see a doctor.
After waiting 30 or 40 minutes, we were called back to see a doctor. He looked at John's arm & shoulder & decided he needed an X-Ray. So, then we waiting about 10ish minutes for that. I wasn't allowed in the room with John since I was pregnant. That was the hardest part by far! I had to sit outside & listen to my baby scream for what felt like an hour but I'm sure it was only 5 or 10 minutes. Conny was really great about talking & distracting me... I was soo grateful to have her with me! She was such a lifesaver!
When I was allowed to go back into the room, he was shaking & his cheeks were flushed. I felt like a terrible mom! I got him dressed again & back out we went to wait for the doctor. He actually laid his head down on my shoulder & snuggled with me, which melted my heart! He NEVER does anything like that. This kid does not give cuddles or anything. Anyway, the doctor said the X-Ray looked fine & that he thought he had dislocated his shoulder & that when I moved his arm, I popped it back into place. He then did some little movements with John to see what he could do. John wouldn't move his arm, reach for toys or anything. The doctor said that if he continued to not move it for a week we would have to come back for an MRI which would be a big deal because they would have to give John anesthesia so that he'd hold still. They told me to keep giving him Advil & that he should be back to normal in a couple days.
After about 4 doses of Advil, John was back to his old self; crawling, laughing, playing, being a normal little boy! I'm very relieved... I definitely didn't want to go back for an MRI!
Wednesday was definitely a rough day, but I'm so glad that Conny was kind enough to interrupt her day to come with me. It was a great comfort to me & I feel like I have another friend here, which is always nice. She was definitely my angel that day!
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