The blog post that came back to bite me on the posterior

So you remember the post where I talked about lettings kids do what kids do and not being a helicopter parent? How I said that there likely to be more broken bones in Tyler's future? Um, yeah, should have got a firm grip on a large piece of wood as I wrote that. It went like this....

Tuesday afternoon, about 4:15pm the phone rings and a lady from the OSCAR Holiday Programme was attending said "We think Tyler has broken his wrist". I shot down to the school where they run the programme and one look at the wee dude's face was enough to tell me that he not feeling too good at all. They had rigged up a sling for him, and gently pulled back the edge to show me the kink in his wrist. 

Off we sped to A&E, where they quickly weighed him and gave him a dose of paracetamol. This didn't even touch the sides of the pain so they squirted a morphine-type substance up his nose with the advice that he would probably be a bit woozy. Five minutes later he was talking non-stop, telling me a very involved story about something he saw on tv. All the time he was waving his non-damaged arm in the air because he said the place on his arm where they rubbed numbing gel felt strange. He had two lots of x-rays, which showed the complete break in the ulna, with the bone on an angle, hence the kink in his wrist. Skip this picture if you're a bit squeamish....

Eventually the doctors sedated him and straightened the bone. He was out to it for about 20 minutes and then woke up rather startled. By this time Chris had arrived. The doctors were concerned about swelling inside the temporary cast, so they cut it all the way down on one side so that we could gently widen it if needed to release the pressure. Eventually they released him with a sling and a prescription for pain medication. As we stopped to get some paperwork from the nurse, a baby started squawking in the cubicle next to us. Tyler exclaimed "Someone's just had a baby in there!" which had the nurse giggling. 

After a quick stop at McD's for some food as we were all starving we drove home and tucked Tyler into our bed (thank goodness for Super-King-size bed). It was a bit of a restless night for all of us. Fortunately Chris was home today on his in-between day and I am off tomorrow and Friday so we can give him plenty of love and attention.

Next week he'll get a proper cast - he reckons this one is going to be pale yellow. And so he is maintaining his '1 broken bone for every 2 years of life' average.

Ouchies

I belong to a parenting group on an NZ website - I joined it when I was about 3 months pregnant with Tyler, and hooked in with a group of women who were all due in the same month as me. It was great sharing the details of our pregnancies, finding out that you weren't the only one having xyz symptom or worried about abc. Now I hang out on the 'Over 5's' board and the OT (Off Topic) board. 

I recently posted a topic I entitled 'Everything's Dangerous!' about how now that I have a child, I see the world through the How-Is-That-Going-To-Hurt-My-Child lens. At times my imagination leaps ahead of me and whirls through a scenario of fall! blood! broken bones! screams! ambulance!....you get the idea. It was comforting to find out how many Mums do the same, and we swapped ideas on how to keep our kids safe, while allowing them to learn how to handle danger and not turn ourselves into Helicopter parents.

The irony of it all which will not have been lost on you, gentle readers, is that at age 7, T-man has had three broken bones already. None of which occurred in what I would call dangerous circumstances. Just normal everyday, boy activities. (I recall when the hospital had to remove his cast early on his first broken arm, the doctor said that it was healing nicely but to not let him jump around for the next couple of weeks. Hello? He was what - 3 years old at the time? It's what 3 year olds do.)

This evening we went for a wander down to the local park which has a nice BMX track on it. Tyler has ridden there a number of times recently, including starting from the top hillock. He did one circuit happily, waited his turn and then set off on the second circuit. Somewhere between the second and third little hillocks something went awry and he crashed off. Not heavily but awkwardly, incurring a number of scrapes and bruises including a graze and bruise on his behind which should look satisfactorily colourful tomorrow morning. There were tears. And snot of course. We hugged. We encouraged him to get back on the bike and ride around again. He wasn't having a bar of it. It took a while and lots of encouragement but we finally got him back on, although not on the circuit, but he biked all the way home. 

There will be more falls, more bruises and scrapes, maybe even another broken bone. But they will heal and he will learn. What's that? Not long before he's a teenager in a fast car? ......la la la la I can't hear you!