Broken Bones

Well, with 4 boys, honestly, I have been so blessed in their health and divine protection, I can't complain. Up until this year the only broken bone we have had to deal with was Dannan's broken collar bone when he was 3, and he didn't seem to know it was broken, so it wasn't much of a problem. So, after 13 years of avoiding broken limbs, we have managed to have 2 kids with 3 broken arms in 3 months. I have to laugh at the irony!

At the end of May Adam and I were both at Woodbadge, a Boy Scout leadership training course, for the weekend. My saintly mother was willing to spend 2 weekends at my house to watch over the kids so I could go have this experience with Adam. The course started on a Thursday, and on Thursday night Adam spoke with Mom, who reported that while Dannan was at school he jumped or fell off the Big Toy and possibly broke both his arms. They weren't too swollen, and with a little Motrin, he seemed to be doing fine, but she had put them in a sling and tried to keep him fairly still. At some point the next day he forgot about his possibly broken arms and climbed the 6 foot fence in our yard. When he fell off, and tried to catch himself with his hands--well, he remembered his injuries! He went into shock, a little, and it wasn't too hard to keep him off the fence after that.

Fortunately Dannan only had compression fractures, meaning the bones were more squished together than cracked. His blue and green casts caught him quite a bit of attention over the 3 weeks that he had to wear them, and didn't stop him from doing much. That was 3 months ago.

Yesterday, while my sister Annie was visiting (or rather stranded at my house while her car was being repaired), Kenyan, the oldest came in making a strange noise. There were 8 kids in and out of the house, and a TV going, so it took me a minute to figure out where in the world that sound was coming from. I looked at Kenyan stumbling across the Living Room making an odd squealing that I finally recognized as "Kenyan's severe pain alert." His face was kind of a grayish color, and he said he thought he broke his arm. Kenyan is the King of Tuck and Roll, which is probably why he hasn't broken his arm before this. I asked him why he didn't tuck and roll this time, and he reported that he had been jumping his bike off a ramp, over some other bikes, and the back tire caught one of the other bikes. The bike was coming at his head, so he couldn't roll like usual. To make a long story short, he did have a broken arm, and after hours in waiting rooms, came home in a splint. It's his right arm, and just before school starts. I have to wonder, did he plan this????