Broken Arm

Yep it happened. The oldest kid in our family, Ms Emily, broke her arm... again. 

As a dad, I feel responsible for this. The reason why I say this is because I am at fault. We were in running club and we were just about to the end. Colby started to sprint and Emily was falling behind, so I told her, "Don't let your little brother beat you." She was tired and I tried to push her and motivate her to go faster. She started to cry and I told her to buck up and push it on to the end. We were in the front of a church and I decided to go ahead a bit. Just as I pulled away, I heard a hard hit to the ground. I looked around quickly and saw Emily lying face down on the side walk crying even more now. There was a piece of the sidewalk that was raised and she caught her foot on the lip and fell. I felt so bad. I picked her up, held her, and then started to walk to the finish line. She was crying about her hurt wrist. I told her to relax because it was probably just sprained. The next day she went to school and came home with it still hurting. Later that night Tiffany came up to me with Emily and said, "When are you going to get her x-rayed?" I looked at her arm and it was a little crooked, so off we went to the ER at Cache Valley we went. After the x-ray, the doctor broke the news to us that Emily's arm was broken. We set up an appointment for the orthopedic doctor to get it casted a few days later. 

The next day we got text message from the Checketts telling us Madi had just broken the same arm as Emily. That night the two of them texted each other and talked about what color of cast they were going to get and how they broke their arms. 

As you can see, Emily chose the pink color to wear for 4 weeks, and Madi chose orange.  These two were so relieved to have a friend to share in their misery.  They even created their own special "Broken-Armed Girls" club.  Thankfully Emily is right-handed and she broke the left hand.  Madi was not so fortunate because she is left-handed.  Poor kid now she has to learn to wash herself and play the piano with one hand. 

The doctor told Emily that her cast would be able to come off a couple of days before Super Kid's Day at school. That made Emily's day to hear that.  However, he also had some bad news.  He said she would not be able to bat or wear a mitt to play softball.  That is when Emily started crying because she loves playing softball.  We finally convinced her that it wouldn't be that bad.  She could still play outfield and throw the ball with her right hand and then she could be a great cheerleader for her teammates during batting.

 Emily writes: "It stinked.  Once again dad "said" it was sprained, but no it was broken.  My friend Madi broke her left arm like I did and she writes with her left. The day I found out she is getting a hard cast, I told her to get blue or orange because the school was having the pledge run, but instead I got pink and Madi got orange because there was no yellow. Since we both broke our arms we started a broken arm club.  It was hard playing piano now."    

We finally made it through the 4 weeks of cast life and it was time to get that thing off.  Emily was a trooper and wore the cast without complaining too much.  She said it was a little easier with the cast on than with the splint because her arm didn't hurt.  One thing she did like about the cast was having everyone sign their name to it.  She had all of her friends and family sign as well as her whole 4th grade class.

I thought it was really cool how they cut the cast off.  They actually used a saw!  The nurse reassured us that the saw would not cut Emily's arm off only the cast.  Thankfully it did just that and her arm was safe.  When the cast came off, it stunk so bad!  And Emily's arm still looked crooked.  I thought, "Oh great her arm was set wrong and now we will have to re-break it and try again."  Then the doctor came in and showed us the new x-rays and said that the bone had healed perfectly.  He said that yes it was a little crooked but it would straighten out naturally over the next month.  That was a relief!  

So now Emily's arm pretty much fully healed.  She still has to be careful though because it is still new bone and a little weak.  For this reason, the doctor gave her a brace to wear when she is at school or playing softball or anytime she might bump her arm the wrong way.  She still cannot bat but at least now she can wear a mitt.  She has to wear the brace for about another month and then she should be good.  Gotta love broken arms!