I was waiting until I got a picture, but haven't had time, so here's the scoop without the pic for now:
Saturday while we were at Sam's football game, Joseph and Noah decided to play on a railing along the edge of the practice field. It was only about 3 feet high, and grass beneath, so I let them. Suddenly, Joseph lost his balance and fell, which probably wouldn't have hurt him much, but he tried to stop his fall by putting his arm out straight beneath him. As a mom, sometimes you just "know" stuff. I was pretty certain as I watched him land that he had broken his arm. I picked him up, and began checking him out. No bones sticking out. Good. Arm looks nice and straight. Good. I began feeling along the bone. There was definitely one spot that was more tender than the rest of his arm, but he didn't scream like I expected if the bone was broken. I called Mom and asked her to bring some ice to the game, and told J to take it easy.
Stephen and the big boys headed off to the Vols game directly from Sam's game, and I took the younger three kids home. Over the course of the afternoon, it became obvious to me that Joseph's arm was not okay. The doorbell rang and he ran to answer it. The moment he tried to turn the knob, he collapsed into tears. However, since it was Saturday afternoon and my only choice was the ER, I was hesitant to go shell out a $150 copay if it could wait until Monday and pay $25 at the doctor's office instead. There was no swelling or obvious displacement. I checked the internet. It's okay to wait 24-48 hours under those conditions, and, for the record, Joseph was not inconsolable. We iced it and gave him tylenol, and I put my wrist brace on it (I have it for Carpal Tunnel) until I took him to the doctor on Monday.
On Monday the Dr. took an XRay, and sure enough there was a simple fracture down the ulna exactly where Joseph consistently complained of pain. They put him in a velcro cast, almost identical to the brace I had him in (just so people don't think I'm completely calloused making my son wait two days to go to the doctor; I did basically what they would have done), and said he has to wear it for 30 days (he can take it off for baths). He's doing well with it, though he's a little worried about it getting healed in time for wrestling. I have assured him that since wrestling season doesn't begin until after Thanksgiving, he should be good to go, but he's already trying to make me promise to take him to watch all the practices even if his arm isn't healed. The strap between his thumb and forefinger was bothering him, but I've created a bit of a. . .well, I don't know what to call it. I cut a cotton gardening glove so that it just had a thumb and forefinger and slid that on under his cast. Seems to work. Oh, and we have to spray the thing with febreze every day, cause it's already starting to stink! (It's leather with a fabric lining).
So that's the latest. Our first broken bone in 12 years of parenting with five kids. Had to happen eventually, I suppose.
By the way, the main reason we don't have a pic up is because Joseph wanted to wait and get a picture of him and his friend across the street, Holden, who broke his arm the same week. Unfortunately, Holden has the stomach bug right now and is, um, unavailable for pictures. Hopefully by the end of the week he'll be feeling better and we'll get a shot of the Casted Crew.
Posted by willa at Septiembre 12, 2007 10:15 PM | TrackBack