Bubbas Broken Bone

Long story ... We had a family over for dinner (a while ago), the dad's were having a ball with the kids in the back yard. At the kids request, one of the dads was doubling bouncing the kids on the tramp. Bub's kept on going in his usual fashion... "more... more!" minutes before we were buttoning things up for the night and saying our good byes, Bubba and all his passionate persistence said "one more !" and this time it did some damage. I think he was trying to "not take the bounce" to trick the dad and at that moment, he went flying through the air. I knew something was wrong immediately. I ran over and could see his ankle swelling and bruising right before my eyes as he wailed on the tramp. He was miserable and in a lot of pain.

The next morning we took him to the pediatrician and they thought is was just a BAD sprain... gave him a  air cast and crutches. Then the next day came, we got a call from our Doc, she said that radiology might see a chip fracture near his growth plate and referred us to a orthopedic doc. So we crutched him to the orthopedic and sure enough... there were two fractures on 2 different growth plates. UGH! They ended up casting him to his upper thigh. It was so sad. He was choking back the tears. It was so sad... biggest bummer is we were leaving for the beach with a bunch of families the next weekend and he wouldn't be able to do anything.

Red faced and fighting back the tears. Sweet boy!

A few days into the cast, Buba was going to loose his mind. He could hardly bare the claustrophobia of the full leg cast. There were itches that were entirely unreachable that were going to drive him absolutely crazy. SO... being the sympathetic mother I am and HE being the very convincing son he is :) both of us feeling helpless, I got our Dewalt drill and carefully drilled about 6 wholes through his cast just big enough for him to poke a Popsicle stick through and make contact with his skin. OHHH my, that was risky but so worth it. He was in heaven.

Attempting the impossible at the beach with a full leg cast. It became ridiculous. It was SO misrable. For 2 days we tried to do everything possible to keep him comfortable, sand and water free but to no avail....

Such a  tropper!

Killing time. Some cool beach photography, what he thought sounded like a great idea to kill the time only lasted about 15 minutes and then it was ".... Mom... what can I do... "over and over again...all day. It was painful.

SO.... what did I do.... I cut off his cast (gasp!) Since he didn't have bone displacement, rather fractures, I thought.. well maybe it would be ok. It took a few hours with a cheap serrated butcher knife from the condo we were staying in and a few very strong men to pry it off. I was so concerned I was making a terrible mistake. I think everyone we were with thought I was crazy. Probably was a little. We duck-taped the bageezers out of his ankle to keep it stable and he continued to walk only with crutches not bearing any weight. He was able to wade around in the pool and have a little fun, wash the sand out from his leg etc. 

Up to NO good. Cast removal

Bub had privately told me he had been praying that his foot would heal and how strongly he felt it would be ok. I hated to dash his faith by being a pessimist so I didn't say anything except I was proud of him that he had prayed and been comforted. I was sure the doc would report me for child endangerment (haha ...not really) and slap another full leg cast on for another month.

So here we were a few days latter at the orthopedics again. A little (lot) embarrassed to tell them "I" took off his cast. Luckily after seeing the xrays they were amazed to see great healing in only 2 weeks!!  So no more full cast and they put on a cast below his knee. Still needed crutches for another week and half but life got a million times easier and he was one happy kid!

"told you so MOM!"

Happiness is setting is as he realizes no more FULL LEG CAST!

 He went from a full leg cast, to this cast (above) and crutches, to this cast and a little walking shoe and then to a walking boot that was removable.  BAM, 8 weeks later we are almost done! We go this week for our final xray.

This process has been an interesting one. Lots of lessons learned.
#1 no more tramp with adults
#2 no more double bouncing
#3 no more cutting off casts... at least for this kid. You give him an inch and he will take a mile. We were very lucky (blessed) this go around that things really worked in our favor however it unintentionally taught him that we can break rules and then where do you draw the line...? He has been pushing the limits ever since, thinking he knows more than the doctors.

Anyway, all is well that ends well. Sweet Bubba!