Broken Bones

[ImarriedGrumpy]

When I was 5 years old I got into a wrestling match with my 4 year old brother and broke my pinky on my left hand. We were fighting over who got to sit on a box while we were watching a pick up football game between the church youth group and the adult sunday school class. I won the war, but my pinky got bent back in the fight. No one believed it was broken - everyone just thought I was being a whiny brat when I kept complaining that it hurt. My parents finally gave in and took me to the ER just to shut me up. Boy were they surprised to discover it was broken! I was so tiny (I was smaller than my 4 yr. old brother) they didn't have a brace small enough for my little finger. The doctor had to cut a tounge depressor down to size and then tape my ring finger to my little finger with the wooden slice in between.

Oh, and I also broke my tailbone in Jr. high when I fell down a flight of steps at school. That was just a month before I left on a choir tour to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Try taking a 15 hour flight with a broken tail bone...OWWWW!!! And then I sprained my ankle in Australia - it swelled up something lovely and turned all kinds of colors.

 

[Snow Brite]

I have managed to not break anything. My middle son however broke his leg when he was 5. We had an old-fashioned Schwinn exercise bike and the boys liked to see how fast they could get it going by reading the speedometer. I don't know how many time I told them to be careful, and I have always felt guilty for not just hauling it off to the dump.

They went camping with their dad for the weekend, then came home. The youngest was the first to pop in the shower (wow were they dirty!) and the other two were outside playing with the exercise bike. Next thing I know, the middle boy is screaming, and not a mad scream but a pain scream. I run out and the oldest one is standing there mortified. He said that he had gotten the bike up to 35 mph and then jumped off. Ryan had not believed him and had stepped closer to see the speedometer better and taken a pedal to the shin at about 35 mph. I carried him to the van and we drove the 45 minutes to town. In the ER he seemed fine except for the huge bruise and cut where the pedal had connected, but not crying and in pain so I thought we had escaped with little to show for it. WRONG! He had a fracture on the x-ray. I told him this was a bit much to get out of a shower.

Of course this was 2 weeks before we had to drive out of Alaska, moving out of state. And he was too little and uncoordinated for crutches so I had to get him a wheelchair and then a walker with wheels. And I carried him piggyback a lot. But we did get one of those hanging handicapped signs which was great (although of no use in Canada as they don't have hc parking spots). He was in the cast for 5 weeks and then a boot for another 2 weeks and walked with a limp for another month but by the time school started he was fine.


So far he is the only one. I have no doubt there will be more though with 3 boys with ADHD in the family. Bless their frenetic klutzy little hearts.

 

[hlbtimes2]

Left leg, just above the ankle- 15 years ago. I was on a business trip in CA. The hotel had painted all the out door concrete. It was rainy while we were there. Rain and painted cement are a BAD combo! I slid and hit the bottom step. It broke the outside bone, and tore the ligements on the inside. I was in a cast for 3 1/2 months. I had to have surgery to put a plate in and fix the torn lig's., and then had the plate removed a year later.