It Had To Happen Sometime....

Growing up I used to think that broken body parts was a rare occurrence. I didn't know it was actually quite common. I grew up in a house of 7 kids and no one broke a bone while I was growing up. Even my little brother falling out of a tree didn't result in a broken bone.

I had been married a year or two when one of my siblings got the 1st broken bone in the family, my baby brother at the age of 5. My parents went 20 years and 6 kids with no broken bones. Number 7 comes along and breaks a bone in his first 5 years. He was playing on the playground, got pushed off and landed on his elbow. His was a nasty break. Made my skin crawl to look at it before it was in a cast!

I've since realized how common broken body parts are. So I've suspected that one of our kids, if not all would have a broken something or other at some point in their lives. I've also suspected that Shaylyn or Lex would be that kid...

So here's our story.

Thursday, November 1oth, 4:00 am - I am awoken by a noisy child getting breakfast. It's 4 in the freaking AM, so I told this child, Shaylyn, she needed to go back to bed. She apologized for being loud and then said, "I fell out of my bed and my arm hurts."

I was mean (hey, I am SO NOT a morning person) and told her I was sorry, but she needed to go back to bed. By this time Eric had woken up and told me to go back to bed and told Shaylyn that she was fine, she just needed to be quiet.

When Shaylyn came home from school that day, she said her arm still hurt. So I 'played' with it a bit to see if something was wrong. When I pushed back on her arm she said it hurt and I could feel bones moving around. I told Eric he needed to check it out.

Later that night when Eric looked at it, he said it was probably broken and he'd take her to Instacare the next morning since he was already off for Veterans Day.

So, Friday November 12th, Veteran's Day, found us at Instacare. We got the Dr. we don't care much for and told him what had happened. He then had the x-ray tech come get Shaylyn to get her x-rays done. Eric went with her - so that part of the story is lost, unless you talk to Eric.

The Dr. comes back and says that Shaylyn has a 'buckle fracture'. I had no idea what that meant and let it go. The nurse came and put a splint on Shaylyn and told us we'd have to take her to the Pediatrician in 5-7 days to get it cast. They needed time for the swelling to go down. (For a better look of where the 'break' is, you'll need to click on the picture and then enlarge it a bit...I've circled the area with the 'break')







I decided to make Shaylyn's appt. with the Pediatrician on my birthday, the 16th. I did it because Eric would be home and so either he or I could take Shaylyn and the other could stay home with the little kids.

Well in the meantime Eric had decided that we were going to leave in the morning and be out all afternoon. In the morning we had to go to the DMV so I could renew my license. After sharing my life story with them in documents, I received my lovely temporary license.


After the DMV, we headed to lunch at Olive Garden. It was a good lunch, but terribly overpriced. We spent more with just 3 of the kids than we usually do with all 5! Then because we had some time to kill we headed to the dollar store. We spent a small fortune there and then it was time for the dr.'s appt.

The pediatrician showed Eric and I where the fracture had occurred and then went about casting it. During the process Shaylyn told me, "I'm getting a cast for your birthday!" Well, at least she chose a purple!




So we've had the first broken bone in the family and the winner was Shaylyn. I really should've known.