Ashlyn's Cast

I never would have guessed that the first kid in our family to break a bone would be my sweet little Ashlyn. But sure enough, it was. Over a simple pillow fight even. Seems she hyper extends her limbs (loose joints like her Daddy) and her Doctor said she will be prone to injury because of it.

It happened on Thanksgiving Day. We had dinner at my brother's house and the kids were having fun running around and being silly. Toward the end of the night, Ashlyn runs up to me crying saying she hurt her arm. She's not one to calm down quickly when hurt, so I didn't think much of it. We went home, put an Ace bandage on it, and put the kids to bed. The next day it was swollen and she couldn't bend it very well. We kept it bandaged and gave her some motrin thinking she must have sprained it. The day after, even her hand was looking swollen. So we took her to urgent care. They x-rayed it and said she had a broken elbow. They put her in a splint and gave us the number to a pediatric orthopedic doctor in our area. That was Saturday.

On Monday, I called the number and got an appointment. Turns out the doctor wasn't really in our area, more like Tarzana, but whatever. It was a mad dash to get down there in time to be "squeezed in". But once at the office, we sat and waited for about 2 1/2 hours before seeing the doctor (lucky for me my Dad was in town and him and Heather watched Brandon and Leah while I was gone). We FINALLY got called back and I swear the doctor was so old. He shuffled around the office barking orders at his nurses and seriously looked like he had one foot in the grave. Oh well. He looked at the xray, said it was just a hairline fracture and to cast it for two weeks. Whew! That wasn't too bad afterall. Ashlyn chose her favorite color, and we were off.

Two weeks later, back at the same office, they took a" saw" to her poor little arm and cut that cast right off. Then the doctor told me to make sure she gets more calcium and that she can't play at school for the next SIX weeks (lucky for her that winter break is three of those six weeks).

Through it all she was extremely brave. I was so proud of her. And she even conceded and let me take a few pictures of her before heading down to get it taken off. I told her she'll want to see them when she's older and she'll be glad I took them.