So Broken

This is a post I would rather not be writing, but it is big news in the Ellis house. On Wednesday, Jake went to practice as planned and arrived home as planned. Except when he arrived back home, he was not quite the chipper Jake that we all know and love. Jake had gotten hit with a baseball. He was going to catch a fly ball and lost it in the sun. The ball came down directly on his collar bone. We decided to head to urgent care just to make sure all was ok. X-rays were completed and they did not see anything, but said that if it did not improve in a day or so, that we should see our doctor or return to their clinic. They said sometimes you don't see the break right away. We iced and took some Motrin and went to bed. Jake went to school on Thursday and was in quite a bit of pain, but the doctors said to expect that since bone bruises are painful. Jake made it through the day and headed to bed for some rest. I knew he was in a lot of pain, but continued to ice and tell him to hang in there, a bruised bone hurts!!

Well around 3:00 I heard "Mom," and I got up and went in by Jackson. He was uncovered so I figured he was cold, so I covered him up and went back to bed. Around 3:30, he is calling again so I got back up, but he is still covered and sound asleep. Then I hear it again, but it is not Jackson. It is Jake. I turned on his light, and my big brave Jake has tears streaming down his face and is in extreme pain. I tried to get him as comfortable as possible, gave him some more pain medicine and called in to work to get a sub. Jake would not be going to school in the morning. Ken was in KC or I would have taken him to emergency then.

So, off to the doctor we go and Dr. Bradley knows Jake and his typical smile and spunk. He took one look at him and knew something was extremely wrong. He felt around a little and then all of a sudden he said "Oh yeah--I am pretty sure it it broken. I felt a little click. Let's get some X-rays and see what is going on in there." As you can see--there was no doubt that there was a break. He decided to put Jake in a figure 8 brace. It basically keeps his shoulders back.
Dr. Bradley had to pull Jake's shoulders back to get them in position to put the brace on. We then proceded to lay Jake down because he almost passed out. Jake has an extremely high pain tolerance so I knew how much he had to be hurting. So for the rest of the day and most of Saturday, smiles and the sparkle in is eyes were gone. Basic daily movements hurt--we helped him sit up, sit down and almost everything he had to do, Everything was extremely painful. We were careful just sitting down by him because the movement of the cushions hurt. The brace was something he was not thrilled about. He continued to wear it and we kept it as tight as Jake could tolerate.

On Sunday morning, we seemed to turn the corner. He had a little smile and joked a little with his Uncle Craig. He could get up a little easier and wasn't quite as ginger about his movements as Friday and Saturday. This by no means meant he was ready to go out and play--that still was really the furthest thing from his mind. And we all know Jake, so this is still an indicator of how much pain he was in. Mid-day Sunday, he decided he would brave taking a shower so we took the brace off. It was then that he realized how much better the brace made it feel. So by the time he was out of the shower he was saying "Mom hurry up and put the brace back on." We have continued to tighten it ever since.

He will be out of commission for 4 to 6 weeks--so he was pretty sad today when is new uniform arrived. He went to school today and seems to be doing quite well. Luckily there is no "rehab" that will need to be done, it will just be a matter of getting his arm back in shape and head back in the game. He will continue to go to practice and be part of the team as much as possible. What a bummer since he has been practicing since January.

This is what it looks like for real--as you can see, the right collar bone(on the left side in the picture) does not look much like the left--I will keep you posted as he recovers. As you can also see, a little spunk has returned. He was going a bit stir crazy so we had a family poker game. Jake, you have been incredibly brave.