Of all our children, I would have expected Tera to be the last one to break a bone. She’s a very black and white rule follower who is also very safely cautious.
And yet…back in December, we had our first broken bone, and it was Tera. It happened when we were ice skating as a super fun family activity. It was the first time Heavenly and Tera had ever been ice skating, and after almost 1.5 hours on the ice we were finally having so much fun (it took awhile for both girls to warm up to it).
The rink was closing for hockey practice, and Theo and Tera were heading for the door to leave. Theo was right behind her when she just slipped and fell backwards. She had fallen many times on the ice, but this one was different. Theo and I both knew as soon as she went down that she had hurt herself.
Of course, she cried…and the cry was different from all her other cries. It was a cry I had never heard before. Still, she’s a brave little girl and her crying turned to whimpering. We got all the kids loaded up and took a moment to discuss what to do next. Our plan after ice skating had been to go out to eat and then head to our church discipleship group. We immediately vetoed discipleship group but still needed something to eat so we hit the McDonald’s drive through. We drove home to eat some dinner and to watch Tera a little bit. By this point, it had been about two hours since she fell and she was still crying/whimpering/eyes glazed. Theo decided to take her in to Urgent Care to get an X-ray. Theo has emergency medical training and just from his assessment he knew it was broken.
At Urgent Care, Tera got an X-ray, and the doctor and radiologist both decided that it was very broken and she needed to head to Children’s ER right away. In hindsight, this was a wise move, but the Dr. and technician weren’t trained in children and overreacted a bit. Still, it was nice to have a second opinion.
After hanging out at the ER until 2 am, the Dr. there determined that there wasn’t a break and she needed a soft cast for the weekend and to come back Monday for a recheck and potentially a hard cast.
On Monday morning we headed to the ortho department of the Children’s hospital, and the team checked out her arm. It was visibly swollen and obviously hurting her a lot, so they decided to put it in a hard cast, even though they still weren’t able to find a break on the X-ray. At that point, we weren’t even sure if it was her elbow or her wrist that was broken, so they decided to cast both the wrist and the elbow.
Putting the actual cast on took about 20 minutes, and it started with this soft white sleeve
Next, the technician put cotton all around her arm, and then wrapped it in the tape (she chose green with red sparkles). Then, they poured water over the tape until it hardened. That cast was heavy!!
Tera was SO BRAVE the whole time. She did cry, but only when it really hurt. We were so proud of her.
Believe it or not, getting the cast on was the easy part! The hard part was caring for the cast. Since this happened right before Christmas, we had a lot of activities planned and Tera really just rolled with it. She did so well!
The first hurdle: road trip to Pennsylvania! We made it and we somehow managed to fit Tera into her winter coat. Gloves were a different story, unfortunately.
She had no trouble opening her presents!
And she LOVED getting her cast signed by all the special people in her life- including her Great-Grandma!
One thing that I’m still a bit nervous about is how Tera feels about ice skating. We pulled up some previous Winter Olympics and had her watch ice skating, but she was pretty nervous they were going to fall and break her arm. We do plan to take her back ice skating next year and hopefully overcome any fear of ice skating she may have.
After just three weeks in the cast, it was time to get it off! Theo took our girl to that appointment, and it was quite the experience! Honestly, it was probably the most painful part of the entire process. They used a mini chainsaw to cut off the cast from top to bottom. They broke it open like a hot dog bun and then her arm was free! Unfortunately, the tech then dropped her arm from the 90 degree angle it was in to fall flat on the table and Tera started SCREAMING in pain. The fact that her arm had been so stiff while in the cast meant that the tendons had tightened up and needed to be gradually loosened. She was in a lot of pain for about 3 days after getting the cast off, which I did not expect at all.
Here are my top tips for you when your child is in a cast:
- Stay calm, and comfort. As a parent, it’s easy to freak out when we see our child break a bone. It’s scary and looks painful and there are a lot of “what ifs”. But as a parent, the most important thing to do is to just stay calm. Acknowledge that it hurts and that it is serious and that the doctors need to check to see if the bone is broken. Talk the child through each step from the drive there, to the waiting room, to the x-ray to talking with the doctor to getting the cast.
- Bath Time and Bed Time. Bath time and bed time are the two hardest moments for anyone who has a cast. Bath Time requires the proper water-proofing of the cast, and/or keeping the arm elevated out of the water. To waterproof the cast, wrap a washcloth or small towel around the top of the cast, tucking it in if possible. Next, put two plastic bags over top the whole cast, tying it at the top where the washcloth is. The bags should keep the water out, and the washcloth is a third barrier just in case some water does get in. Bedtime was the hardest part for Tera in a cast. Since she couldn’t bend her arm at all, she had a very hard time getting to sleep or falling back asleep once she woke up. Her hand would fall asleep if it was in certain positions or she would end up laying on top of the cast, which can’t be comfortable. We ended up finding out that it worked best to prop her casted arm up on a lot of pillows and have her sleep on her back. It certainly takes discovering what works for each individual child depending on their age, their cast and how they typically sleep.
- Safety Precautions. One major thing that surprised me about having a cast is how dangerous it can be! Have you ever walloped your little brother in the head with a brick attached to your arm? Yeah? Well, it hurts! Tera accidentally hit a lot of people with her cast and it just made us realize how careful she needed to be with her arm. No wrestling, no hitting and limited super physical activity in the proximity of others.
- Winter/Summer Care. I’ve heard all about the nightmares of having a cast in the summer. You get sweaty, it smells. You can’t really swim or participate in any summer activities. What a bummer. I can’t speak to the inconvenience of a cast in the summer, but I can speak of the inconvenience of a cast in the winter. Have you ever tried to put a winter coat/gloves onto a child with a cast???? It’s nearly impossible, and the glove would come off every two steps. It was also hard to dress her warmly enough in general- long sleeves and sweaters are pretty much out, so we had to resort to short sleeves for the duration of time that she had her cast. No matter what season it happens in, it can be tricky and parents need to be prepared!
- After the Cast Comes Off. Another thing that really surprised me about having a child with a broken bone was how much it hurt after the cast came off. I realize now that I was naive, but I assumed that once the cast came off, the arm was healed. Instead, the arm was weak, the tendons were tight, and she still had a fair amount of pain in the wrist/elbow area where it broke. The day she got her cast off, Tera spent most of the day lying around moaning and we had to give her Tylenol to get her through. It took about three days for the pain to wear off, and then it was just tender. The tenderness wore off in about 10 days.
Bonus Tip: Work really hard with your child to reintroduce the activity that they were participating in when they broke their bone. It may take slowly working back up to it, but they should not have to live in fear of that activity!
So you tell me…have you ever had a kid in a cast? How did you cope? What would be your tips on navigating those difficult few weeks?