Daniel Has An Ouchy

Daniel has been playing in a men's softball league for the past couple of months and I never get to make it to his games because they usually don't start until 7:45 and Claire goes to bed at 8:00. Last night, however, his first game started at 6:30 so Claire and I got to go watch Daddy play. About thirty minutes into the game, Daniel slid head first into second base and dislocated his left shoulder. From the moment he stood up I could tell that he was in severe pain. I knew he needed to go to the ER so I called Wendy (next door neighbor) to ask if she could watch Claire so I didn't have to take her with us to the flu infested ER. As I've mentioned before Wendy is a nurse practitioner and her husband Truk is an OB/GYN. I asked if either of them had experience with popping dislocated shoulders back into place and they both said no :( However, Truk has a orthopedic doctor friend who he was able to call and get instructions on how to do it. We thought it was worth a try..........anything to avoid the long wait at the ER. So Truk got out an orthopedic table that he had at the house and instructed Daniel to lay on his stomach with his shoulder hanging off the side of the table. He gave him a 25lb. weight to hold in his hand as traction, hoping that it would help to move his shoulder back into place on its own. Unfortunately that alone didn't work. The next step involved me pulling one direction on a sheet that was wrapped around Daniel's torso and Truk pulling the opposite direction. Sure enough it worked. The sound of his shoulder popping back in was so loud but it was a great sound because we knew it worked. I wouldn't say it was instant relief for Daniel, but it definitely felt better than before. This morning, Daniel rode into the hospital with Wendy so she could order him an X-ray to make sure his shoulder was completely back where it was supposed to be. We won't know until this afternoon after Truk's orthopedic doctor friend reads the film. Daniel felt good enough to go to school today but he will definitely need to take it easy for about 6 weeks. If he is still having pain in 3-4 weeks, Wendy said that she will order an MRI to make sure he doesn't have any serious ligament damage..........keep your fingers crossed!