Son broke leg, full leg cast. Cry with me pls

[dez1978]

long time medical professional here. I spent the first 16 years of my career in ER, was a nurse and later a provider. Anyway, I have seen significant changes. Back in the 90's pain meds were handed out like candy, we were told that pain is subjective and that if the patient says their pain is 10/10, then that is absolute truth and they should be treated with narcotics. And viola...people became dependent. Fast forward and the healthcare system has over corrected to the point that it takes getting placed on hospice to get a prescription for narcotics (I'm stretching a bit, but not by much). I honestly feel that this is an issue with administration/politics on the highest level. Both policies (the first being to treat everything and the current to withhold pain meds) assume that health care providers don't have the ability to use judgement in deciding how to treat pain. It's policies and policing in the form of prescription audits that has created the appearance that providers don't care. I contend that providers DO care about their patients, but are hamstrung by policies. I could on about this for days, it's not only pain control, but many many issues created by the "healthcare system"...it's broken.

All that said, when it comes to broken bones, narcotics generally don't relieve the pain. However, they will affect your perception in that you won't care about the pain so much. But, the ultimate treatment for the pain of a broken bone is realignment (called reduction) and stabilizing it so there is not further movement/shifting of the broken bits (fixation). Once it's in place and not moving, the pain is VASTLY better. Getting from the moment of impact to the moment of reduction and fixation is the miserable part.

Also, seeing your child in pain is gut wrenching.

As for the wrestling season, I'm sorry he's missing out. It may be important that he still attend the meets to support his teammates. You will know what's best there. On the plus side of all of this, he will gain resiliency. I recommend that you try to avoid making a big deal out if this, don't make him the center of attention (meet his needs, but try to just go with the flow). Continue to participate in life while making the adjustments necessary...I imagine bathing, dressing and transportation are the biggest obstacles.

This will give a whole new appreciation for what people with mobility disabilities deal with every day and it will likely have a positive impact on his development of empathy toward people with disabilities.

I’d have been fine if they’d have done versed and ketamine or conscious sedation or whatever so at least he wouldn’t remember the pain. I don’t care about opioids per se just something that actually helps. You can’t tell me ibuprofen and Tylenol is the standard for that. There’s no way they’d do that to an adult, so why a child? We’ll be a week out tomorrow so I’m hoping we are past the worst. But yes, seeing him scream begging them to stop dev is one of my worst parenting moments. I’ve never worked so hard to keep from punching someone in my Iife. I know the intent was to help not hurt but momma bear mode kicks in at that point.

If you are having trouble positing the casted leg, try bean bag chairs if can locate any. Very helpful for positing with large casts because they can be formed around it, and formed into almost any position.

We have a giant comfy sack. Just haven’t been able to get him in it yet.