Take Two

Landon.  Landon.  Landon.  How very much I love this little boy, and how very grateful I am that we have excellent medical coverage.  Why?  Because in the past two months, Mr. Landon Trezise has broken his right wrist AND his left humerus doing the exact, same, stupid thing.

The first time...

Just shy of two months ago (September 2nd to be exact), I was inside cooking dinner, and the kids were playing outside on the swing set.  All of the sudden, Landon came into the house, screaming that he had hurt his arm by sliding down the slide, standing up.  I looked his arm over, determined that it looked fine, gave him some Advil and sent his sand-covered body into the shower.  In the back of my mind however, I had a nagging "Mom feeling" that it might be a good idea to have his arm checked out.  We were leaving to go to Christopher Creek the following afternoon, and I didn't want to get there, and then decide his arm might be broken.  I waited for Will to come home and take the three littlest minions, and off the the ER I went with Landon is tow.  I think he was secretly hoping his arm was broken so that he could have a cast.  We spent a little over two hours in a small exam room, without a TV, where it was determined that he had just sprained his wrist.  We were sent home with a small, black splint.  I was relieved, and Landon was happy to at least have a splint to show his friends the next day.
Bright and early the next morning, I got a call from the hospital informing me that a radiologist had reviewed Landon's films and determined that his wrist was, in fact, fractured.  Into the ortho we went for the application of a green cast, which was to remain in place for three weeks.  Since it was the start of soccer season, Landon would have to miss his first few practices and his first two games.  He was bummed, but had a cast to show off as consolation.
Landon's handwriting at school was atrocious for two and a half weeks (having not been wonderful in the first place, I pitied his poor teacher), but other than that, the cast did not seem to slow him down in the least.  Just shy of three weeks, post injury, Landon't ortho (Dr. Williams, a family friend) saw Landon at the soccer field and told him that if he could pull off his own cast, that would be okay.  Elated, Landon pulled off his, by now, cumbersome cast.  Lesson learned.  No sliding down the slide standing up.  End of story.  If only.

Take Two....

Nine days ago I was standing in the kitchen, cooking dinner.  Landon came into the house, screaming and holding his arm.  Sound familiar?  Yep, he had hurt his arm again, only this time it was the left side and he was pointing to his upper arm.  Through his tears, I determined that he had once again been sliding down the slide, standing up, and he was certain he had broken something again.  His arm looked fine, and I thought that it wasn't probable that he had broken anything in his upper arm (it wasn't his elbow or his shoulder that hurt, but his mid arm) because the humerus is a large bone, and difficult to break.  I gave him some Advil and put him in the shower.  When I finished helping him wash off, he was still crying, and was unable to dress himself.  Better safe than sorry, I decided on a repeat visit to the ER.  Will was just arriving home, so I passed off the littles and headed out.  Landon was not looking so hot this time.  He was pale and shaky.  After nearly three hours, the doc on call told us that he had a small bone chip at the base of his left humerus.  This time, Landon was not celebrating.  He spent the next 24 hours in quite a bit of pain, until Dr. Williams came home from vacation, looked at his xrays, determined that he not only had chipped the humerus, but had also fractured it clear across, near the base, by the growth plate, and called him in some pain medication.  Two days later, Landon was fitted with a much larger, blue cast and sling.  We waited for more xrays to make sure the bone fragment was staying in place, and that he would not need surgery to pin it back together.   The word today is that it is healing nicely, and no surgery is required.

SO, has Landon finally learned his lesson about sliding down the slide, standing up?  You would think so, but I have my doubts.  I overheard a conversation between Landon and a school friend two days ago, where Landon's friend told him that the slide trick sounded fun.  Landon replied that it was the funnest thing he had ever done.  To avoid further risk, Will has taken down the swing set, slide and all.  Our backyard looks rather desolate, but hopefully, we will avoid further injuries.