Supporting Cast

It is amazing how far modern medicine has progressed since I was a child. When I broke my wrist during a Friday night of doing the "Hustle" and slow dancing to "Stairway to Heaven, " the ER doc promptly placed my arm in a cast.

A plaster cast, like the kind you use for art projects, with a reminder " not to stick a coat hanger into the cast, even if you are dying to scratch an itch (hadn't even considered that until the doc told me not too! )"

So we move forward to some 30 years later when my 11-year-old son, while at school, broke his arm under some mysterious circumstances. He swore he was not goofing off, running sideways was the way ALL the guys were running!!

So the ER doc, did x-rays and said " Yep, it's broken. Clean thru." So I am, of course, expecting the big bucket O'plaster to come out. Much to my surprise, the doc splinted the arm and referred us to a pediatric orthopedic. Which of course we could not see until the next day at the earliest! Do you know that from the moment a bone is broken, the body immediately begins to mend the area?? Well I did. This sent me into an absolute panic that his arm was going to heal overnight and he would have a deformed arm, or worse-the doc would have to re-break it to fix it.

The next day we went to the orthopedic, and I was amazed at all of the broken bones in that place, which perhaps explains why the doctor asked my son to disrobe so he could look at his full arm and chest. These doctors see all types of injuries. Looking over the child's body is their way of making sure an accident is truly accidental and not continuation of danger. I applaud them for taking the time to look and care. Many child abuse cases go unreported, sometimes for years.

The tech came in and had my son choose from a plethora of colors and patterned fiberglass. He chose black, with the promise that I would buy him a silver Sharpie so his friends could sign his new attention-getting device.

I had no idea that the cast would go all the way up to his underarm! Neither did he. Then he got the speech. " Do not stick anything into your cast. No money (as if it were a wallet??) no food (what??) and no coat hangers ( they did give a sense of relief..) !! If something drops into your cast and you can't get it out, you must come back immediately as the skin can grow around an object (here is the point my poor son about passed out..) and off she went.

4 weeks later, he got a half-cast, this time he chose red, and begged to get back on his skateboard. Luckily for us the doc was the bad guy and insisted that he wait for another 6 weeks.

Now they have these fun things called CASTOOS!! You know, like a tattoo for your cast!!

The week the final cast came off he came down with pneumonia. 3 miserable weeks were spent with inhalers and nebulizers. After that a sinus infection. The week after that he fractured a bone in his foot ( i secretly think he was running sideways again..) and is still wearing a huge boot thing.

I could sit back and lament over all of the woes and injuries, but the reality is he is a boy and boys are going to get hurt. We are really lucky that he waited this long, as I am such a nervous mother had these happened when he was younger I might not have been able to take enough anxiety meds to survive each incident. The positive note is that he was able to meet the entire family insurance deductible within the first few months of the year.

Whew.