Dear Braedon,
One day the topic of "Have you ever had a broken bone" will come up via talking with your friends or girlfriend. I prided myself on not having any broken bones and also can thank my parents for passing down good genes.
Your father, however can not claim this and nor can you now. Your father broke his leg when he was around 1-2 years of age. It was not of his own doing, he crawled under a moving rocking chair and well his uncle smashed his leg. This is not the only time he has broken something. While during his senior year at Indiana University, your father was playing a heated game of basketball. He jumped up to block a shot and his opponent smashed his hand into the backboard. Your father then had to drive himself to the Emergency Room in his BMW which was a stick shift. You guessed it, he had to drive with his busted right hand.
I am one of those helicopter moms people write about all of the time. I hoovered over you and your siblings to make sure you weren't hurt. I would run around the playground watching you like a hawk to ensure your safety.
You were a very cautious little boy and still are. You wouldn't climb anything unless you were sure you could do it safely. Even today you will not do anything that you think might harm you.
Technically you didn't break anything, but you did fracture your elbow. To be more precise your Lateral Epicondyle. It happened just as we were gathering you and your siblings for bed time. We have a routine where we all meet up in the bathroom. I was in the other room getting things prepared for you and I heard your father ask if you if you were alright.
There was a pillow with a star on it we had lying on the couch most of the time. It happened to be lying on the floor. Somehow you stepped back and fell over it. You put your left hand down to break your fall. In doing so, your humerous either hit your radius or ulna or it hit the ground making a fracture.
Instantly you did not look right or feel well. We were unsure of what happened to you but you insisted that you just wanted to go to sleep. We checked on you throughout the night but you didn't wake. The next morning, I could see that you still weren't doing well. You wanted to lay down in bed with your Father and you were "babying" your arm. It was swollen with a very mild discoloration.
It happened to be a Sunday and I knew the only place we had to take you was the hospital. We double checked with your doctor and the confirmed that if you needed a cast the ER was the place. I was very nervous because you hadn't had the need to see a doctor for anything.
You of course were very brave. They gave you some Tylenol when you arrived and that was the only medication you received during this entire process. They took you in for X-rays and you didn't cry although it hurt. When the pediatric surgeon came in to put your cast you were brave. It was only when they split your cast so that it could expand as your arm swelled, did you then cry. It was a very loud and scary machine. I looked like a saw and it looked as though it was going to cut you. Only until after the doctor saw that you were terrified, did he explain to you that it wouldn't hurt you.
We had been there for about 7 hours and you were tired. I was tired. We thought we could get out of there with just the cast but then the doctor returned informing us you might have to have surgery.
There was a long battle between your doctors and parents regarding what was best for your arm. They wanted surgery and we wanted you to have time to let your body heal naturally. Ultimately we won. You did end up having 4 different occasions of X-rays, which I felt was too many, but we wanted to comply with the doctor. We wanted to make sure you were healing properly.
After 6 weeks, your cast came off and you babied your arm for a bit. That is natural thinking you might hurt it again. Time has passed and you have full range of motion with your elbow. You haven't really given it any thought.
I couldn't believe that you had to have a cast and that my baby was hurt. I am grateful everything worked out and you are well on your way to 7.
Love,
Your mommy
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