I took Nolan to the doctor a few days later.  You could tell how swollen his fingers still were.  They took the splint off and there was some bruising.  That was another thing they told us the day it happened.  The bruising will tell us a lot about the injury as well.  They were able to confirm that his thumb was broken.  She said the big bump that formed was most likely a vein that had popped when he fell.  That contributed to a lot of the bruising as well.  We got his cast on.  He was happy it was a nice little one.  Hopefully he will be able to write a little better with this.  He will wear this for three weeks.  

As we learned more about the incident that happened that day, we feel so bad for Nolan.  The school wasn't very helpful in resolving anything.  There was an apology letter sent home for the verbal bullying but not for the tripping that caused the injury.  Nolan was pushed to the ground during lunch recess.  The kids during second recess then started to tease him about being pushed.  They were playing football and all the kids, including Nolan, were doing a lot of talking back and forth to each other.  Then one kid decided to trip Nolan on purpose during the next play.  He did and that is when Nolan fell down and got hurt.  We don't think the boy meant to hurt him and when he found out a few days later that Nolan broke his thumb Nolan said he was really surprised.  Overall that day was a really hard one for Nolan.  They took football away from the 5th graders for the rest of the year.  I don't think they can suprovise it well enough and the boys get too competitive.  We are sad for Nolan but thankful he will heal quickly.  I was thankful this was an injury that I know how to handle well and within a few weeks Nolan will be good as new.