Chesney’s Broken Arm – She’s My Little Hero

My seven-year-old daughter has just recovered from a possible broken arm. She was very brave and stoic through the entire ordeal.

It all happened Tuesday, March 13th, 2012. I swear something was really out of line with the universe that day…

Chesney’s Broken Arm

I was busy with spring cleaning when I got the call from the school nurse.

“How close are you to the school,” she asked me.

My heart sunk. This couldn’t be good.

I was at the school within minutes and as soon as I entered the building I could hear Chesney’s cries. As a mother, this has to be one of the most memorable, awful moments. I rounded the corner into the nurse’s office and saw her sitting in the chair cradling her elbow. It was swollen and red.

I guess she tripped and fell in gym class and went down really hard on her right elbow.

We went to an urgent care facility that is known for having virtually no wait time. After taking x-rays, they said it may be broken inside the joint; but to go to the main hospital’s emergency room to see the pediatric specialists over there. They put her in a sling and sent us on our way.

After about 4 hours in the ER, they put her in a plaster cast that weighed practically as much as she does. They split the cast open on both sides to allow room for more possible swelling. To keep it from falling off, they then wrap it with cloth bandages.

When we got home she was really uncomfortable. She was getting really freaked out because inside the cast was itching like crazy and the reality of being trapped in it was totally consuming her.

It seemed like she was about to have a full on panic attack so I gave her Benadryl to help her sleep and tried to distract her the best I could.

Three days later, we had a follow-up appointment with a Pediatric Orthopedic Surgeon to rule out the necessity for surgery.

Because this injury is inside the joint they make sure everything will heal perfectly in-line so that there will be no problems in her future. The most exciting part of this visit, is that that heavy cast got to come off!

She was just a little excited… 😉

As soon as the cast was off she wanted to scratch every inch of her skin, but was warned to be very gentle as the skin is very sensitive.

The new x-rays showed a possible hairline fracture within the joint. But it may just be a bad sprain. Either way, no surgery is required as none of the bones are actually displaced, so they recast and will re-x-ray in a couple weeks.

If it is broken, the healing process will show up on the follow-up x-rays and at that point they can determine how long the cast will need to stay on. But if no healing is prevalent, they will rule out a break and consider it a bad sprain.

So, we went on our way with her new, lightweight, fiberglass cast.

The itching was still a serious problem at night. During the day, she was too busy to really be bothered but at night it seemed it was all she could think about. The doctor said Benadryl was perfect to help her calm down and fall asleep.

For two weeks, she heroically and nobly soldiered on. We were even lucky enough to go to Medieval Times, and our Green Knight deemed her “Queen of the Tournament” and signed her cast!

We just had her last appointment and the x-rays showed no sign of healing! So, it was just a bad sprain! YAY! I am so proud of her for going through this with a great and upbeat attitude.

She remained playful, funny and just an overall great sport. When they finally took the cast off, she was pretending it was a snorkel and that reminded me of an old cartoon show from the 80’s–The Snorks!