The First Broken Bone

My babe took a huge tumble off of the monkey bars this spring and broke two bones in her forearm. It was awful to watch, as I was only a few steps away, but was busy with baby sis and couldn't act fast enough to catch her. I went back and forth debating on whether or not to take Little m to a doctor to get checked out because visually her hand looked fine and she was acting fairly normal. Sadly the major thing holding me back was the cost to see a doctor ($1200 out of pocket in the end) so I waited till the following morning to see how things were (obviously I would have taken her in, no matter the price, if there was something seriously wrong). By morning Little m was cradling her arm and wouldn't put any pressure on it, so I decided we needed to get it checked out, for peace of mind especially, as the hubs and I were heading out of town on vacation a day later.

Well, am I ever glad I got her checked out - two broken bones in the forearm. My baby! First I went to a nearby walk-in clinic but they told me they couldn't do x-rays on someone so young.  Thankfully the doctor there brought us back right away just to take a look and they thought there was nothing wrong because Little m could move her wrist all around. They almost sent us out the door, but near the end of the exam they got a wince out of her while putting pressure on her arm and suggested we go somewhere more child specific.

I was able to make an appointment at Lurie's Convenient Care clinic where they took x-rays and found the two broken bones. The doctors there were super nice and sent Little m home with a splint. I was under the impression that she would wear the splint for about a month and would be good to go, but I received a phone call the next day from the fracture clinic asking me to make a follow up appointment, which was fine except when I told them I would be out of the country and that my parents would be taking Little m in to the appointment they gave me a huge hassle. I had to get a letter notarized stating that my parents could make all hospital related decisions, including the possible need for surgery. WTF? Surgery? What happened to just wearing the splint?

Being sassy as ever waiting for the technician to read the x-rays.

Clearly, the splint did not slow her down in any way!

My parents went in to the follow up appointment a week after the injury initially occurred and thankfully I was able to find a decent enough wifi connection in Nicaragua to text my mom throughout the whole thing. The doctors said that a cast would be needed due to Little m's activity level and to be sure that her wrist stayed immobile while the bones healed. On went the cast, in her chosen color of red. We paid $40 extra for a waterproof cast, which was absolutely worth it! 

She was so brave!

The cast stayed on for three weeks and the absolute worst part about it, other than the broken bones of course, was that it had to be "watered" every day. A bath every day? Ain't nobody got time for that! Actually, the bath I could handle, but the cast was supposed to have an hour of drying time before bedtime, and since my kids go to bed around 6pm, this was really difficult to do! Needless to say, I think everyone was happy when the cast was removed. 

Last day with the cast - and good thing - it was starting to get grubby!

So that's the story of Little m's first broken bones. She was such a good sport about the whole thing and the cast hardly phased her. Thankfully the doctors all told me that this would not impact the growth of her bones in the future and I know things could have been a lot worse. The doctor okayed her to go back to being a (more careful) monkey and she was hanging on the playground bars later that day. I hope for her sake she doesn't take after her Grampie and this will be her first and last experience with broken bones!