Well, this finally happened

I missed witnessing it by about 10 seconds. I was walking up to school at the end of the day Wednesday, and as I rounded the side of the building saw the flurry of activity as the teachers came running then started ushering Daniel up toward the main entrance. I ran to catch up, heard the breathless, sobbing story of a fall from the monkey bars, and took him to the office for ice. Then ran back to get Edward and our two friends who come home w/us on Wednesdays. Then back to the office where the friends' mom (who is a teacher at our school) took the other kids away to see crayfish in her classroom while I tried to figure out what to do. Ultimately, my friend ended up driving us home and then we had some calming time w/TV.

He could move it, but it was swelling (even with the ice) and pressing near the wrist/hand juncture was very painful, so I decided to err on the side of caution and call the doctor. John walked in the front door at 5 to take Ed to baseball game (in 45 degree weather and intermittent rain!) and Daniel and I walked out to our nearby clinic, which has evening hours. The Nurse Practitioner thought it was probably OK since he could move it without pain, but sent us for an x-ray (across town!) just to be sure.  

He was not complaining at all of pain by this time so I was sure it would be fine. Just after I called John to tell him we were home and fine, the NP called back to say she'd received the radiology report and it was indeed broken. She had given us a splint and a huge ace-bandage to use to secure an ice pack, so she said to keep that in place overnight and then wait to hear from the orthopedics clinic the following morning.

Ortho called at 9:30 a.m. to tell me to bring him in at 10, so I leaped up from work, raced back to school (where I'd called ahead so D would be waiting in the office) and then dashed back across down, arriving breathless by about 10:05. Then we waited. and waited. and waited. We were called back from reception at 11 and finally saw the PA about 11:30. But then we were out by 12:30. (Good thing I had D bring his backpack and lunch. He ate in the exam room!)

It's the radius that's broken, and a "bulging" fracture rather than a clean line (see arrow pointing to the injury site.) PA said ulna is likely also affected, but hard to say definitively and it doesn't impact the treatment. He'll wear the cast for three weeks, then have it removed, re-x-rayed and should be good to go. For now he wants to "keep it orange" and not have friends sign. That may change as the time goes on and he needs a distraction.

Three weeks means no more soccer this spring (which elicited the only tears over the incident other than the initial fall,) but he can rejoin his baseball team after the cast is off, May 22. No biking or anything that would potentially cause another fall while it's healing. He has to skip the swimming part of a birthday party, but still gets to go for cake and Harry Potter-themed games, so not too great a disappointment. 

He's definitely counting the days and is already annoyed by my reminders to take it easy. The PA recommended slides for park and playground entertainment, but Daniel has no interest in sitting on his butt and sliding down. To him, slides are for climbing up/over/around and/or for shimmying around the edge and dropping from the top.

Ultimately, I think this will be just a blip in Daniel's childhood story. As my mom noted, with a playground fall, it definitely could be worse (e.g. involving the head or neck!) And as I responded, "Yes, and given the child, this was basically inevitable." (It's worth noting that it was a cold, damp day and Daniel was attempting the monkey bars while wearing thick gloves. And, he told me the monkey bars were wet. Life lessons in cause & effect.)