The Cast (s)

Parent fail #981 (ok, that is an estimate because I lost track a long time ago) Stella broke her arm on a Saturday and we didn’t take her to the doctor until Thursday. Stella was running around upstairs in our house and tripped and fell. She landed on it just the right way and it broke. With my mothers ears I could tell the cry when she landed meant something was really wrong, but there was no obvious signs of the break. It was about 7pm and she fell asleep in my arms. We had friends over that night, changed her into jammies and got her in bed but except for crying out in the night, she didn't wake up until morning. I was expecting to take her to the ER on Sunday morning but she came running into our room in the morning, clear-eyed and smiling so we waited. 

That afternoon she left for the farm with Ma and Pa (Pa hadn’t yet learned that you have to be serious with offers). They kept looking for signs of problems with her arm, but aside from crying out at night she seemed fine. Wednesday we met up in Provo to recover Stella and take Calder to a doctors appointment (I’ll blog about that later). Shea had offered to watch Stella for a few hours and an ecstatic Stella ran across the lawn and tripped on the two step porch leading into the Astle’s house.  It took her an hour to recover in my arms (juggling a 1 ½ week old and a distraught toddler is so fun) and I knew something was up.  Though she never held her arm, complained that it hurt, or stopped using it, I decided that I’d take her to the doctor in the morning, for my own peace of mind.   

Sure enough, the xray showed a buckle fracture in both bones! 

She got a pink cast, pulled it off the next day. Then she got a purple cast, followed by a green one. She was a great sport and the cast didn't slow her down much, though baths and a trip to Laguna Beach were a challenge of plastic bags and duct tape.  She still managed to play in the sand, ride her bike, and play dress-ups.