If you have children, and those children have bones, then you may find this post relevant. If you’re the worrisome type, you may also find it worrisome.
So broken bones aren’t terribly unusual in childhood, I hear. When I was a kid I climbed trees and fences, and on one notable occasion, out of a second floor window using a rope made out of knotted together sheets, and yet I’ve gone my whole life without one. Mark on the other hand, has had a bunch. I don’t even mean that in any comparative way, the man just has bad luck and breaks a lot.
Now, like a good mom, I try to remove blatantly dangerous things from my kid’s path. I’ve taught them both not to play with the pointy sharp things or fire-making objects. I make sure they’re generally good about playing nicely together -though one of them has a pretty gentle nature and the other…well….sometimes the other needs some “alone” play time to keep the peace.
My point is that despite all I do to keep the girl’s safe from harm, accidents can still happen. I’ve mentioned here before that I’ve had issues with them playing on this bed. It’s a metal framed bunk bed with a ladder at each end and when they roll around on the larger bottom bunk, heads get clunked, legs get stuck, or someone gets knocked to the ground.
But because Lily is forbidden to go one the top bunk and Violet is old enough to know to be careful on the ladder, there hadn’t been any serious bed- related injuries until a week ago when she manged to fall from the third rung and land… just really wrong.
We calmed her down pretty quickly considering, but she was obviously hurt. I thought it was at worst a sprain but still thought she should go to the ER just to be sure so Mark took her in because I went last time..
It’s what’s called a “greenstick” fracture. If you’ve ever tried to snap a twig that wasn’t dry and dead, you’ll understand why it’s called this. Basically, it’s when the bone bends and cracks instead of just snapping. The doc said if your going to break a bone, then this was the best way to do it.
They put her in a splint and gave her an arm sling covered in dead-eyed bears that she really liked. I pulled her mattress down from the top bunk and put it on the floor and that’s where she’s going to sleep until she isn’t broken anymore.
It took a couple of nights for her to get used to sleeping with with her arm awkward and getting her dressed is a tad more complicated, but after a week she’s adapted to it pretty well.
A few days ago, we went and got her “real” cast on and they said she may only have to wear it for two more weeks, depending on how she heals. The doctor did ask her if she felt safe at home, which judging by the signs all over the hospital, I’m guessing the answer isn’t always no for some kids and that’s pretty depressing.
She got to pick the color and the nurse who put it on had the last name “Riddle” and so, of course, we talked Harry Potter while it set. It went fine until the end when she had to use the saw to cut a part of the cast away so that Violet would be able to bend her arm more comfortably.
She was understandably apprehensive about a saw being on her arm, even after the nurse showed her using the palm of her own hand that the blade can’t cut through skin. It was really loud and I had to cover her ears while it was on. But the end result looks pretty good!
I was nervous sending her to school because I was worried she’d forget to keep one arm free for holding on to the railing when using the stairs or some kid would run into her and knock her over or something and she’d break it worse, but so far, so good. She gets pretty bored at recess though.
The disconcerting part of this whole thing for me, was that I was standing less than ten feet away when it happened and her fall was from a height of only three feet. Thirty-eight inches to be exact, I measured, for her bone to break.
I fear she may have inherited her father’s bad luck.
