You already know this is not going to end well, don't you?
Well...it started with Madalyn spending the night at a friend's house. Where she was accidentally knocked off the ladder of her friend's bunk beds. She was checked out by the parents. She could move her arm. Her wrist. Her fingers. They gave her some ice. And a hug. And sent her on her way.
The next day was when we met Santa. Madalyn told me her wrist was a little sore. When we got home, I looked at it. It wasn't swollen. She could move everything. In ever imaginable direction. With only a very fake sounding "owww" coming from her mouth. But...
She refused to use her right hand. She wouldn't eat with it. Insisted that she needed help opening doors. If I gave her something to carry, she'd either carry it in her left hand. Or would drop it if she needed to use two hands. But...
She refused to put a bag of frozen peas on her hand. Refused ibuprofen. And I just chalked it all up to Miss Drama Queen.
Told her to get over it. Told her that she MUST use her right hand. And even went so far as to recount the story of "The boy who cried Wolf."
Are ya'll groaning about now?
After a few days. I decided that it would be way too much of an acting job for her to continue to refuse to use that hand. And I made Michael take her to the doctor. Cause I was over the whole thing. And it was Christmas Eve. I still had a lot to do.
Michael and Madalyn spent the morning in the emergency room. Because you know I wanted to pay that $75 co-pay the orthopedist offices were closed. And after a few hours, Madalyn arrived home. With a fractured right wrist. And a splint. A sling. And looking like the cat that swallowed the canary..jpg)
I do believe I spent a few days channeling Shannon. Who was also quite sure that she would just KNOW if her child broke a limb. Shannon - I'll happily share my award with you!
So...what about you? Have you ever broken a bone? Had stitches? Had to take a child to the emergency room? Did you wait a few days to do it?
Theme song: Rolling Stones - Mother's Little Helper. Because I am going to need it to get through the drama. And notoriety.
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59 comments:
When I was like 8, I fell while climbing a fence and my parents iced my Macy's balloon-sized fingers and left me with the babysitter for the night.
Wait, let me clarify. My Dad, WHO WORKED IN AN ER, checked my hand out and left me with the babysitter.
It was only a fracture across the growth plate in two fingers...
I promise I recovered and almost never mention it to them. Or check to see how much shorter my left ring and middle fingers are than my right. Sure my dreams of being a hand model were gone forever, but I forgive them.
(She'll be fine. You will be too.)
Oh, thanks for allowing me to re-live the guilt.
At least it only took you a few days. I got you beat on that... it was two weeks before I took M to the doctor. Sheesh.
But she was the same way as Madalyn! She hardly complained that it hurt... but she would never use her left arm. And I would get after her for not doing so, would tell her to use that arm!
I've never broken a bone myself (knock on wood). I have had stitches, but not from anything that resulted in an ER visit... no accident or anything like that, I've had a few moles removed that had to have stitches.
So do we share custody of this award? You keep it for awhile, then when we meet up next I'll take it for awhile... and proudly display it on the mantle.
Oh, and has Madalyn been to the ortho yet? Is she in a cast?
Oh, PLEASE check out my current blog posting, because it is basically titled the same thing!!!!
Wonderful mother that I am, put my 8 week old baby into a swing at a relatives house, positive that since he was basically LAYING in it, no way could he fall out, unless he miraculously learned to sit up and lean forward.
Result? My precious baby fell out/got chucked out of said swing, landing on his sweet little head and face on a hard wood floor. To add insult to injury, it was in a dark room towards the back of the house, and since we were at the family Christmas Eve gathering, nobody knew he fell, and he laid there for quite some time!
So, chunky monkey was sporting a nice bright red mark in the middle of his innocent little forehead for Christmas day. At least it matched his outfit......
Can I get in on sharing that award?? At least it took you guys years to traumatize your kid. I managed it in 8 weeks!
My best friend had a broken ankle in high school and walked around on it for 2 weeks because her Mom made like nothing was wrong with her. She still has problems to this day.
Kids are weird, they seem to actually be LESS of babies about their pain than we as adults would be with the same injury.
Glad she's okay now!
i've never broken a bone.. but always wanted a cast! :)
glad your lil girl is ok!
xo
Hee hee hee... this recently happened to my boss. Her daughter's arm was broken for a week before she took her to the doctor!
Thankfully, I have never broken a bone. I have gotten stitches twice though. Once was... "down there," trying to push out my 11 pound baby caused some ripping!
The first time was actually the day I found out I was pregnant. I was doing the dishes and day dreaming. I had been feeling sick and wondering and hoping. I wasn't paying attention and sliced my thumb open with a knife. I was hoping I could just put a band aid on it, Wylee said no way. He took me to the ER and I had to get 7 stitches (and then took a Pregnancy test).
Hey, I just posted a Mother of the Year post today too. (Although it's not nearly as good as yours.) LOL!! I broke my arm in 5th grade and told my teacher that I was really hurt. He said I was fine and made me finish the whole day. When I showed up the next day with a cast he felt really bad.
Also when Alyssa got her kindergarten shots (she's a TOTAL whimp when it comes to shots) she kept crying and carrying on and refused to walk on her leg. I got so sick of it and picked up her to "gently" put her in the car, when her little sun dress blew up and her tiny little thigh was as big as mine. She had had an allergic reaction to one of the shots and I had to take her to the ER. She ended up on antibiotics because she had gotten a skin infection on top of it. I felt like mud.
When I was 4 I was jumping on my friends bed and fell off. I braced myself with my left hand.
My mom didn't think anything was wrong until she moved my arm in a certain direction and I screamed bloody murder.
She took me to the hospital and I had a hairline fracture on my left wrist.
Your not a bad mother. Cause my mother isn't a bad mother. :D
When I was two, I had a bloody nose and my dad grabbed the first nightgown he found which was too big but who cares, it was the middle of the night. The next am, I climbed over the baby gate to get the newspaper for my parents (my sister was starting to crawl). and I tripped on the nightgown going over the gate and fell down the stairs and broke five terra cotta flower pots and ... broke my leg. But ummm they knew something was wrong ;) They still felt guilty about the nightgown etc though.
And moms who didn't know? Two friends of mine within three weeks of each other:
mom a) went down the slide with her son in her lap and broke his leg when it got caught on the way down but DID NOT figure it out. For four days.
mom b) her daughter fell off a bench while at Disney and broke her wrist. Mom figured it wasn't bad enough to deal with there and waited a week until they got home.... and then found out it was broken.
No worries -- you weren't even there. I blame her friend's parents ;)
Oh, man. My oldest daughter tripped down the stairs 3 1/2 years ago (a few days before my son was born....in other words, I was big and pregnant). I put her to bed, not thinking much of it, until the next afternoon when I was talking with a friend's mom, who got me scared about a broken bone. I took her in just in case...YEP! Broken! I felt horrible.
Oh, and then there was the 2nd degree burn that my 5 year old just got a month ago. I waited 2 days before taking her in. I didn't realize it was something that needed to be treated. Oops.
Both girls are completely fine. :)
I was JUST going to say, didn't I already read this story on Shannon's blog? LOL
I love how you forced her to use her right hand. That is something I would've probably done.
Hope she heals fast!
hey if we do not tramatize our kids then who will a stranger
just doing your job lol
sorry she is hurt but she now has a good kid christmas story
I have only ever broken one bone. It was in my elbow and I waited overnight to go to the ER. They confirmed the brake and told me to see the ortho the next day. They splinted it and sent me home. The ortho took the splint off!!!! AND told me to move it! Because my elbow would freeze. No cast, nothing! Many pain pills later and an interesting bathroom experience along the way, my elbow healed. It was not fun! Poor girl! Congrats on the award! LOL!
Did she get a pretty color cast? My son has broken his wrist on the growth plate 3 times. It's even hard for the ortho to tell it's broken when it's in that area. Don't be so hard on yourself! :-)
Don't feel too badly. One of my bff's waited for two weeks to go in, and her daughter's arm was broken!!
Madalyn must have a pretty high pain threshold!
When I was 12 I had pains in my stomach all night and I kept nagging my mother about it. By the early morning, I was on top of the steps crying so she finally got up and decided to take me to the hospital. I started to feel a little better during the ride so she began to lecture me that I better be sick. After being looked over by a couple of doctors, they told us my appendix was about to burst and I needed to go into surgery immediately. I think my mother's face fell to the floor. I learned from that to never second guess when a child is complaining of an illness or an injury.
have I mentioned I'm blonde? Cause I'm sitting here thinking "Oh, poor Kat, not only did she not realize her child broke her arm, but she doesn't realize she already posted this."
Yeah dingy... only she told you about it on IM, NOT in a post.
Lord take me now.
Oh - to answer the questions. No broken bones, several stiches, only taken child to ER for what turned out to be Pnuemonia and that was an emergency situation so we went right away....
my son, maybe 5 at the time, fell off the slide at home and hurt his shoulder. no biggie. have some ice blah blah blah. well it was about 10 days later when it still hurt that i took him to the dr and they sent him to the ortho. he broke his collarbone. yeah i felt good.
AND then when he was 8. the poor kid fell at the playground and hurt his ankle (so i thought) helped him hobble to the car and iced it at home. no bruising no nothing. next day he couldnt stand on it so i took him to the ER to have it checked out.
broked leg.
boy i felt good.
When I was 7, I broke two of the fingers in my hand. My mom didn't think anything was wrong. I had to practice piano everyday for a week and a half until they finally took me to a doctor.
I personally have broken a bone when I was younger and I have sprained my ankle a few time.
I have also been to the ER, med center and doctor office more times than I can count with one kid or another.
I hope that she feels better soon. And don't worry, I don't think that you will be the only one getting that award. You are so not alone.
I've never broken a limb, nor have my own kids, however, One little boy I was babysitting did. He was skateboarding and fell. Same thing, he could move it, it wasn't swollen. I called his mom, and she asked him if he wanted her to come pick him up. He insisted he wanted to stay. We took him to see Spiderman. He was still holding his sore wrist. By the time mom came to pick him up, it was sore,but not too bad. SHe took him to the hospital..and sure enough..broken. I felt awful.
I believe it, and don't feel bad. My daughter has been complaining of her knee off and on for over a month now - she is growing so we chalked it up to growing pains.
She continued to complain about it - refusing ibuprofen and such also. Went to doctor - got an MRI - she has a benign cyst on her knee, but that may be causing the pain - we have to go bac on the 13th to let him know if it has gotten any better. /sigh.
Never broken a bone but I went to the ER when I was about 9 or so with a sprained wrist after falling on it in the yard.
Luckily, I've never had to take LOML to the ER.
Don't worry. You have proof that you're not the only mom that's done this.
Oh, just blame it on the other kids mom. I would have done the same thing. So, what did you say (buy)to her?
Thank goodness neither of my kids has broken any bones. I did have to take my daughter to the emergency room when she slipped on a pool deck and had a two inch long quarter inch wide splinter in her big toe. It was totally gross and my husband was all like, oh I can get that out. NOT. She had it wrapped and was back at the party after being miss big shot.
The girls look adorable in their santa hats!
Have a great new year.
and thanks for becoming a follower. You inspired me to add the widget.
I recently sent sweet boy to school as he said he didn't feel right. No temp~ no upset stomach~ so off to school you go. Get a call from the nurse 2 hours later~ your son has a 102 temp.
Time to replace the batteries in our thermometer. Argh!
ohhhhh my. Have I ever broken bones. Many many bones. MANY. I'll post about it one day...hahahahaha
Sorry about little girls arm! And don't worry momma, sometimes you just never know! :) My Mom did the same thing until she realized it was a pattern i repeated (broken limbs that is)
I can't wait to see what color cast she chooses.
It's ok, Kat. I've done the same thing with Donny. Took me a week or so to finally get his pinky looked at. The fractured one, it turns out.
I've never broken a bone...except possibly my tailbone. That was a bad, bad, bad healing process.
Never had stitches...due to my weight I ended up with staples instead (gall bladder surgery). I ~suspect~ I broke my toe or something in my foot a few years back but since I never went to the dr's to have it looked at I couldnt tell you for sure. I do know that the foot acts up now and again and the cold weather is aggravating it.
Ha - I was about to say, I think I heard this story before from Shannon! Poor girlie!
EEK! Poor girl! The only emergency we have had so far was an hour after we brought Little Miss home from the hospital. Daddy was jumping on the bed with Cole...Cole fell off the bed and gashed his head on the window. Grandma and Daddy had to take him to the ER while I saw sobbing on the couch nursing my newborn. He had 3 staples put in and was a trooper!
Bad, bad mommy. hehe
No broken bones here ... knock on wood. I'm one of those moms that refuses to over-react, unless a child is spurting blood. So if it makes you feel any better, I would have done the same thing you did, or didn't do I guess I should say. ;-)
I broke both my collar bones once. I wanted to see how fast the A frame swing in my Papa's yard would go while standing up. It goes fast enough to throw a 5 year old girl out.
And I should have gotten Mother of the Year when Jacob hurt his shoulder and broke out with the Shingles. My poor baby was in agonzing pain and I made him suffer for 2 days cause I thought it was just sore.
yep go me.
My son broke his wrist and I thought it was just a sprain. After 3 the weekend and it wasn't better off we went to the DR. I felt awful that I had let him suffer.
When my little one was in K,she fell down the stairs. She said her writst hurt her, I looked at it, no bruising, no swelling. The bus was coming, so I sent her on her way. About 15 mins. later, my phone rang and it was the school nurse. She said she thinks her wrist was broken. I take her to the DR and sure enough the wrist was broken on the growth plate. First of 3 times. Don't beat yourself up over this. It happens. Happy Days are here.....
Well, to console you...
my gymnastic coach made me continue a work out - tumbling on a ski floor for 2 more hours...
on a broken ankle.
He told me to suck it up. Boy did he feel bad when I came back the next day and asked him to sign my cast.
Not bad enough to let me out of workouts, mind you. I still had to come to practice for flexibility and conditioning. And bars. What a brute.
And my mean parents made me go.
So, I'm on Mad's side on this one. ;)
I think I've been in the ER with each and every one of my children. Sam fell on the rocks at Tower Rock state park and hit his head--took him to the ER and the ER doctor wanted the nurse to "save" the rest of the liquid glue they used on Sam for the next patient. Nice, right? Chris was constantly in the ER and spending nights in the hospital for Bronchial infections. Todd slipped in the bathtub and needed stitches in his chin. Rose, though, she takes the cake. 2x in the same week she got to visit the ER for the exact same thing. Remember the toys Toobers and Zots? They're little foam pieces used for crafty things--sold as a toy, of course. She found some lying around in the boys' room and decided they belonged up her nose. I was out when she started shoving, and came home to Sam telling me that she'd shoved. First I didn't see anything and figured they'd come out and then she started running a fever. The ER doctor got them out right away but didn't check for any more than the one she got out. A few days later she had another fever and her nose looked funny. I took her back to the ER and the doctor made it worse and gave Rose a terrible bloody nose and we were sent to the ENT, who couldn't see us til the next day. Needless to say it was very traumatic (for me!). My kids don't seem to be holding any of it against me, but usually when any of them get hurt (or act hurt) I just tell them to "shake it off" and not to bother me unless there's blood involved.
I've yet to break anything but I have done a nice little number to my left ankle--I fell on it when I was rock climbing and ended up on crutches. It never did heal right and it's always a little swollen.
Sorry, no trauma stories today but just wanted to mention love the Mr. Heatmiser on your playlist by Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Saw them in concert earlier in the month. AWESOME AWESOME show!
I did the same thing a couple months ago. My son had his finger smashed at school and the nurse called and told me she thought he'd be okay to stay the last hour of the day. When I picked him up he was still crying and it was ugly so I bought a walmart splint and the next week he had an appointment for something else and the doctor looked at it and said he was probably fine but agreed to an xray and we went home. He called me a couple hours later to say that it wasn't broken, the whole tip of his finger was crushed! We had to go get it properly splinted and it took forever to heal!
I broke my arm in 6th grade and since it didn't swell or bruise. A week later she took me in and it was broken.
You're not alone, not even a little.
When I was 5, a storm was moving through and I was standing on our front steps. A gust of wind flung the door open and knocked me off. Broken arm.
And yes, I won mother of the year award in 1999. My son was climbing on his grandmothers tree. I heard this little wimper and went outside to see what was going on. Saw him lying on the ground, bone sticking out of his arm, bloody. I turned right back around, went inside, told my hubby to go check him and I called 911. I was A MESS. LOL
When I was 8 or 9 I was showing my dad that I could do a round-off cartwheel just like Nadia Komenici and broke 4 fingers on my left hand...Dad took me to the ER.
When my oldest was 3 or so , she had her finger slammed in the hinge of a closing door. Ambulance to the ER and all....
that's it for broken bones around here.
I'm a little embarassed to tell this story, but I did break my arm when I was 7. See, I was a bit of a hypochondriac back then (no, I'm not now--how could you ask???!!!). So, my parents basically treated me like the boy who cried wolf.
Well, one day, I was kicking at my dad (playing...really), who was lying on the couch. He snapped his arm out and grabbed my foot and dumped me. I very ungracefully fell right into the end table, right on my wrist.
No bruising...no swelling...just one little faker crying and saying "It hurts!" Three days later..."It still hurts!". Mom and dad finally decide to take me to the ER. No copays...Dad was in the Air Force. Sure enough...my wrist was broken! I got one of those funky fiberglass casts.
To this day, I firmly declare that my dad broke my arm when I was little!
In 7th grade, I broke my collar bone tubbing with the 8th grade boys. My daughter got stitches in her forehead after she lost a fight with the corner of the entertainment center.
I broke my finger while sledding at age 10. My mom didn't believe me until the x ray and orthopedic apt. I forgave her(eventually).
Oh don't feel bad. You just don't know sometimes and it is so hard with kids. Unless a bone is protruding, it is hard to tell. And the other parents didn't know either so you can blame them as the first responders!
wow! what an impressive blog.
Oh bummer...I CANNOT see any of your pictures :( But...I'm assuming there's some pretty good ones :) Poor, poor Madalyn. I hope she's doing much better real soon...something tells me, this won't even slow her down :o
Um...yes, just had my first broken bone in almost 37 years...broke it real good...was my right wrist, had a plate and 5 pins placed! YOUCH! Still don't like to think about it. Only stitches I have ever had was from my C-sections---guess those are really staples, huh? Does that still count. And then of course, stitches on my wrist. Now, this other question you asked about taking a child to the ER...might get a little lengthy.....When Jake was about 15 months I accidentally smashed his little pinky on his left hand in this HUGE, GIGANTIC old trunk we have. YOWSERS did I feel horrible. Thought I'd smashed it completely off. There was the delayed scream...then me realizing what I had ACTUALLY done, and then the blood...oh yea, and the almost 4 yr old that kept reminding me (to this day! Why does he choose to remember THAT!) about smashing Jake's little tiny pinky finger. So, no...I didn't have to wait a few days to take him...called the ambulance (this is funny, now of course, but Brian remembers Connor saying to him..because I was with the firefighters..."Don't worry Daddy, the firefighters are here now and they are taking care of Jake!" Um, yea, can you just imagine hearing that from your 4 yr old??? The last thing, and then I'll SHUT UP...we were a little saddened that when we got to the ER...it wasn't like Grey's Anatomy....we expected nurses all waiting in scrubs and throw open the doors and put him on a girney. Nope...they escorted us right to the insurance desk :(
So sorry this post was so long :)
Poor thing! Don't feel bad...sometimes it is hard to tell when they are acting, or really hurting! Believe it or not, I have never broken a bone, and I hope I never do...Happy New Year's Eve!
Oh no! Now you'll have to pamper the injured baby. hehehe
When I was about 7, my Dad and I were fooling around on the front lawn. I somehow tumbled over his back and landed on my right arm. It hurt, but I was able to waggle my fingers and reach my arm up and grab stuff. Finally after over a week of it getting progressively more sore, my Dad took me to the ER (he cycled there with me perched on the crossbar of his bicycle!). An xray showed that I had not only broken both bones just above the wrist, but as it was a green stick fracture, the bones had completely twisted around and had started to set. They had to take me into theatre to rebreak and reset the wrist. My parents felt really bad.
I've also broken the pinky finger on my right hand (the following year). It didn't set right and is now crooked. Which was a bad thing when 'The Invaders' came out.
I've had a broken nose, minor skull fracture and broken bones in my foot and one of my toes. I've had a few stitches as well.
I've had to take my kids to the emergency room on numerous occasions. Their injuries were usually pretty obvious, so I didn't wait :-)
Don't feel guilty. Broken bones in kids are often not immediatly obvious, as their bones don't always break all the way through ... hence the term 'green stick fracture'.
I got the mom of the year award earlier for the batteries my kid ate... no one was hurt but I sure did feel bad.
You can peek at it here
http://thedogsaboytoo.blogspot.com/2008/01/so-i-got-mom-of-year-award-for-this-one.html
That's pretty funny! Only because it obviously wasn't life threatening.
Again- you're a wonderful mom. Who would have done differently? Not me!
Don't feel too badly. My daughter had an orthopedic surgeon work on her ankle and he told us that he once was telling his son to "get over it" from a soccer injury and it turned out the son had a broken collarbone. He said he was VERY embarrassed and took a lot of teasing from the other orthopedists in his group about that one! :)
My mom would have loved this award...she constantly told us kids to suck it up. Once I even had a fractured nose. Oh well, lucky for me I have not done that to my son..yet.
No broken bones. ~knock on wood~ I've had stitches before but I was too little (or traumatized) to remember it.
When my middle daughter (now 12) was 2 she fell down the stairs at my parents house. Of course she got up and kept on going like the Energizer Bunny. It took almost two weeks for it to dawn on me that anytime I would go to hold her hand she would jerk it away and say, "Not that one mommy, the other one." I finally figured out she was favoring that arm and wouldn't let me touch it. HELLO! It had been two weeks! What a Mommy Dearest I felt like when I took her to the doctor and her arm was fractured! Bless her little heart. They put the sweetest little splint on her arm. She was a real trooper about the whole thing. The whole story still breaks my heart when I think about it. She was so sweet and cute...
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