A New Party Game for Parents

A few weeks back, on a Thursday, Henry had a tumble in gym class at school and had to go to the nurses office.  When he came home he was still protecting his left shoulder, but didn’t seem be in much pain.  We gave him some tylenol and he slept well that night; and we figured he’d be fine in the morning. He was a little sore in the morning so Anna got him a sling on the way to school.  He hardly slept Friday night, but seemed to be doing a bit better.  Some friends invited us to go up to the Guadelupe river and Henry was his normal self throwing rocks, swimming and jumpin off rocks (with a wince when he landed) in the river, which was barely a stream after 8 months of serious drought.  That afternoon, we finally decided to go get an X-ray…

You don’t have to be a Radiologist to figure this one out.  I stopped by the ER and they hooked us up with a kids size sling and ACE bandage to secure his arm against his chest with for a week or so. The Orthopod at church says the sling doesn’t do any direct good, but indirectly they slow kids down and keep other kids from tackling them.  Which helped us feel better about letting him go two days with a broken clavicle.  But when I ruefully admit to letting a radiologists son go two days with a broken bone before getting X-rays, it’s surprising how many parents openly admit they’ve done the same and some even say it like they’re trying to one up me.  First, it was 3 days on a wrist, then a week on a toe, with the prize (so far!) going to two months of gymnastics on a broken wrist…though I’m not sure that one really counts since it was more of a slipped growth plate. It was actually kind of fun to hear everybody’s stories…would make a great party game…especially watching the shock and disgust on the faces of those parents who have never been so negligent with their children…yet.

Took Henry back on Saturday for his follow up and it seems to be healing well. The extra bone around the break is called callous and part of the normal healing process.  Henry is back to normal life after about 3 weeks now.

If anyone can give two months a run for their money, let me know!