A Broken Wrist

Those who have been around kids enough are generally surpised when they haven't killed themselves by the tender age of 3. Katie was determined to walk down our steps before she could even walk on her own, which of course led to several tumbles down the stairs that scared me to the core several times. Amazingly she never broke a bone. Christian has always been my more cautious one. He wouldn't walk down the stairs until he was at least three. He would always scoot on his bum or slide on his stomach. Not that he doesn't do his crazy things now.

Yesterday, as he was running into his room to get dressed for swimming, he tripped on one of his stuffed animals and with an outstretched hand tried to catch himself and hit the bottom edge of his bed. He came tearing out of his room screaming and crying like I have never heard before. I used my athletic training skills and saw that it looked fine and nothing I did seemed to produce pain of a point tender break. However, a five year old has a hard time distiguishing and telling you if it is dull and achy or sharp and shooting. Today, after he woke up in pain in the night and was walking around with his right hand holding his left up, I realized that when he was patting his whole arm saying that it hurt, that the pain had been shooting up his arm from his wrist.

Since my athletic training skills are not used often I called and got an early appointment at the doctor's office, hoping I wasn't wasting money on a sprain that would go away. After waiting for the doctor for 45 minutes he confirmed that it was probably a Torus fracture which is common in kids when they fall on an outstretched hand. It is a contained break which squishes the bones together like the plates of the earth and they buckle as they hit. He gave us a splint which he said Christian didn't have to wear (but we will have to pay for as we have a deductible) and gave us an x-ray order to make sure it didn't go through the growth plate. Off to the X-ray lab we went for another hour wait and we will know for sure everything is mostly fine in a few days. Here you can see a picture of somebody else's further up the arm than Christian's is supposed to be. I saw his x-rays and there was nothing this visible as far as I could see. And you know, I'm not a radiologist, but I stayed at a Holiday Inn last night, so he should be fine in 3 weeks.

Christian is having fun telling everyone that he has a broken wrist. But when asked why he doesn't have his splint on he says it feels fine now. When I get the bill I will know exactly how much money was well spent. The problem is, while your kid is in school and an injury is in that gray area, you can't send them to school without checking it out. The school will call you saying "Your son says he broke his wrist, and he is holding it like it is hurt". So you might as well make an appointment and just go. And hey, it was broken!

Katie is just upset that she didn't get a sticker. If she knew how boring the whole process was, she wouldn't be coveting it that much.

Update: We got the X-ray results back and it wasn't broken after all. We have got some strong bones in this family!

Just to start off...

Just to start my very first blog off, I thought I would post the birthday cake pictures. Katie and Christian had swimming parties this summer, so that is why their hair is wet. Katie was strongly encouraged to have piggy tails so that she would look good in all the pictures and wouldn't have to worry about her hair, but refused. Then she was encouraged to brush her hair after she came in and got dressed, she refused. The next day after she saw the pictures when we downloaded them, she covered her mouth and said "look at my hair". It is in the genes. I have pictures that are in this vein also. It was a much more peaceful and educational approach this way. MAYBE, she will listen next time. She did have a fabulous time though, which was the whole goal. We almost had to change plans for the party, however. We had 110+ degree heat all week long. The forecast was hot all week long which is great for a swimming party. Then on Saturday morning we got the remnants of Hurricane Dean, thundering and dumping .91 inches in our backyard. It didn't get over 90 till after the party. But since it wasn't raining, we carried on. And yes, it is back to 110+ again. Come visit!

We are really enjoying Arizona, even with this heat. The weirdest thing to get used to is that when you set your washer on the cold cycle in the summer, you open your washer up to very warm laundry. Opposite of Idaho where I would have to warm my hand after touching my cold cycle clothes because they could've almost contained icicles. Don't miss that! I have also gotten used to going to the grocery store with coolers so that my freezer stuff doesn't melt on the way home. I actually don' know if anyone else around here does that. But Costco didn't mind when I brought mine in one time. Didn't even bat an eye. I dare you to try that where you are and tell me the results!

Mike's big news is that his baby is almost out of the paint shop. He has finally decided on a color. Royal Maroon.

Here is Mike working on taking as much of the car apart to save money on the painting as possible. He did a great job. We are saving about half by doing this and putting it back together ourselves. (It was supposed to be just Mike, but I got roped into it too.)
Anybody recognize this great Lime-Gold color from the 60's? It looks a lot better when it is not oxidized, but I am glad that it will change.

And yes, a beautiful picture of me helping with the project...
no I have not had a shower in this picture. When Mike set off determindly to do this project in the middle of July while he was on vacation, I told him he was on his own. If it was any other time of year, I would help, but not now. Notice the date on the picture, yes, that is why I had not bothered to take a shower, I was sweating profusely. There was a decision that I made that I would rather see more of Mike inside once we got it taken apart and on its way. And I don't mind saying, I was the one who figured out how to get the bolts that held the doors on, off.