You know the inner battle between not wanting to be overprotective and having day-mares about what might happen to your child at any given moment? I do! A few weeks back at the park, I was having the thought "I've got to let Cora roam more freely; I've got to trust that I don't need to follow her every second." Five seconds later, when I wasn't following her, she fell six feet off a play structure. Naturally.
No broken bones though. In fact neither I, Jacob, nor any of our siblings has ever broken a bone that we can recall.
Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend and Jack is having a BLAST on the water slide at his great aunt's house in Jennings, LA. This was the same 8-foot slide that last year had me glued to its side, cringing every time he climbed it as my overactive imagination saw him toppling backwards off the top. Well, this year he went up it at least thirty times without incident. I gave him space to be a four year old boy and while Jacob and I were sitting at the opposite side of the pool with Cora, we saw his little head pop up over the top...and then plummet downward.
To Jacob's credit, he ran just as fast I did around the pool. Jack was in a heap on the concrete, wailing. We hadn't seen how he'd landed, so we gingerly picked him up. He was clutching his arm, which had a little blood on the wrist, saying it hurt. We sat with him on a porch swing for a while but he wasn't calming down. Jack's not one to cry for long, but we thought he might just be overtired after a full day of playing in the pool. So we took him inside and he fell asleep on the couch. (With me hovering beside him; I have heard too many stories about concussions.)
We woke him after a little while and when he stood up, he started sobbing again and clutching his arm, so we felt like we had our answer at that point. We took him to the local ER and an x-ray showed two buckle fractures in his left arm, near the wrist. He was sent home with a splint and instructions to follow up with an orthopedist on Monday.
Jacob and I were so proud of Jack! We've already seen he's a model patient. He's a curious guy and likes attention, so the comings and goings of a hospital interest him. Both this visit and at his recent ear surgery, he was the one answering all the questions. And so matter of factly too. He has been sticking to his "4 and one quarter" answer when asked his age, which always gets a smile. When he was asked if he needed a wheel chair to go to the X-ray area, he looked at the nurse oddly and shook his head, probably thinking "It's my arm that's hurt, not my legs!"
He didn't need too much pain medicine between Saturday and Monday and was able to get his cast on Monday, Memorial Day, at Children's Hospital. We are so lucky to have this awesome all-needs facility a five minute drive from our house. (He's been there a few times at this point.) Jack loves to check to see if the helicopter is on the roof whenever we are there.
There was no question on the color of the cast. Red.
Now Jack had not seemed down by the broken arm, but I was really sad for the guy! Would this mean the end of his 2014 t-ball career? A summer of no swimming? What about the four day road trip with Grammy and Big Papa where we were planning to live it up in the hotel pools each night? But Jack's break was "the best possible kind" according to the doctor and he'll get his cast off in 3 weeks, one day before our summer vacation and road trip.
That's a happy ending to this story. And in case you're wondering, I'm sure I'll be stationed back by the water slide next year.
No broken bones though. In fact neither I, Jacob, nor any of our siblings has ever broken a bone that we can recall.
Fast forward to Memorial Day weekend and Jack is having a BLAST on the water slide at his great aunt's house in Jennings, LA. This was the same 8-foot slide that last year had me glued to its side, cringing every time he climbed it as my overactive imagination saw him toppling backwards off the top. Well, this year he went up it at least thirty times without incident. I gave him space to be a four year old boy and while Jacob and I were sitting at the opposite side of the pool with Cora, we saw his little head pop up over the top...and then plummet downward.
 |
| All fun earlier in the day |
We woke him after a little while and when he stood up, he started sobbing again and clutching his arm, so we felt like we had our answer at that point. We took him to the local ER and an x-ray showed two buckle fractures in his left arm, near the wrist. He was sent home with a splint and instructions to follow up with an orthopedist on Monday.
Jacob and I were so proud of Jack! We've already seen he's a model patient. He's a curious guy and likes attention, so the comings and goings of a hospital interest him. Both this visit and at his recent ear surgery, he was the one answering all the questions. And so matter of factly too. He has been sticking to his "4 and one quarter" answer when asked his age, which always gets a smile. When he was asked if he needed a wheel chair to go to the X-ray area, he looked at the nurse oddly and shook his head, probably thinking "It's my arm that's hurt, not my legs!"
He didn't need too much pain medicine between Saturday and Monday and was able to get his cast on Monday, Memorial Day, at Children's Hospital. We are so lucky to have this awesome all-needs facility a five minute drive from our house. (He's been there a few times at this point.) Jack loves to check to see if the helicopter is on the roof whenever we are there.
There was no question on the color of the cast. Red.
Now Jack had not seemed down by the broken arm, but I was really sad for the guy! Would this mean the end of his 2014 t-ball career? A summer of no swimming? What about the four day road trip with Grammy and Big Papa where we were planning to live it up in the hotel pools each night? But Jack's break was "the best possible kind" according to the doctor and he'll get his cast off in 3 weeks, one day before our summer vacation and road trip.
That's a happy ending to this story. And in case you're wondering, I'm sure I'll be stationed back by the water slide next year.
No comments:
Post a Comment