Who knew ellipticals could be so deadly. Actually, I did have a gut feeling that I shouldn’t let the kids play on Grandma’s elliptical because it was so big and powerful, but I am too often a paranoid parent and didn’t want to be the party pooper again. I should have pooped this party, though.
Exhibit A-The Elliptical:
On Tuesday Cade was using the elliptical when he got his elbow at the wrong angle and the moving handle smashed his arm into the stationary handle he was holding. He stepped down in terrible pain, crying and then promptly fainted! I had to catch him and sit him with his head between his knees for a few minutes. I searched all over for a bone or something sticking out figuring that fainting must mean something really bad. But there was nothing we could see to indicate a break. He laid on the couch with ice around his arm for a few hours before we took him to the urgent care. It’s always hard to tell if a kid needs to go to the doctor with stuff like this. With Levi it is usually evident, gushing blood is a pretty clear sign, but that’s not true for the rest of them. When the doctor pushed and prodded on his arm it was very obvious he was not faking it.
The X-Ray
Exhibit B-The X-Rays
Notice where the radius bone (big arm bone to the left) bulges out slightly on both sides.
I drew lines to show where the true line of the bone should be. That slight bulge or buckle was the proof apparently.
Verdict: Broken! The technical term is “distal radius buckle fracture”. Rock’s cousin helped us understand why we couldn’t tell it was broken by looking at this x-ray. He said your bone is like a stick with a bunch of saran wrap around it. If the stick breaks, the saran wrap holds it together if it’s not too big of a break. And the “saran wrap” is pretty strong when you’re a kid. That’s why it is so hard to see the actual break.
The Urgent Care put a splint on him and sent us home with instructions to see our pediatrician for a cast once we got home 3 days later.
Left: Mount Garfield, Right: Grand Mesa, Center: Beaming boy who now has the bragging rights to the first broken bone in the family. He could not wait to walk in and show off his cool sling to his siblings.
Had to take his picture with the offending machine. Which, I might add, all children were forthwith banned from using.
The next day, Rock’s cousin Grant, an ER doctor in Grand Junction, took a look at Cade’s arm for us. He then went to the hospital to confirm the break as valid, got us copies of the x-ray (Thank you, Grant!!), and brought back the materials to put on his cast! Never thought I’d have a kid get a cast in the kitchen, but Caderade did. With an audience, no less!
Grandma Dot was second only to the doctor in signing his cast. 
It was almost full with family names by the time we left GJ.
Ironically enough, his arm is not the only thing Cade broke this week. You can be a bit clumsy with a sling on, and Cade tripped over a basket and sent Grandma Hymas’ lamp crashing to the ground. Grandma was very gracious and Cade’s parents are now out $80.00. That is not the end of the irony here, however. This is not the first grandmother’s lamp that Cade has broken. When he was one or two years old he broke Grandmother Wesel’s heirloom lamp and his parents were out $150.00. I’m sensing a pattern here. Thank goodness he only has two grandmothers. But as pointed out earlier, he still has two great grandmothers so I should probably warn them.
And that was Cade’s Spring “Break”. Or maybe I should say Spring “Breaks”. Stay tuned for the rest of our Spring Break story.
Short n Sweet 