Brooklyn - 0, Concrete - 1

Brannon took the girls out for a quick walk to Grannie's last night to see Grannie and to pick figs off her fig tree. As they were heading into the house - Brooklyn fell face first on our "porch", which is concrete. She busted her top lip and as we were putting her to bed last night - I noticed she had chipped one of her pretty front teeth!!!

School Wounds

For those that know Bella and remember when she was younger (I know she's only 2 1/2, but...), know that she was a biter! Well - she got bit pretty bad at daycare last week! She had apparently been aggravating another little boy and pinching him to the point that he had had enough! It has healed up just fine and is almost gone - she keeps pulling up her sleeves on her shirt and saying "look at my arm - almost gone!" While these aren't the best pictures - you can see it was a pretty bad bite - but 'tis is life! She got put in time out at school and was made to apologize to the little boy for pinching him! Oh the life of a 2-year old!

Ditching the cast!

We took Bella's cast off one last time last night and she got to throw it away in the trash can! Of course, I made Brannon get pictures of this momentous occassion!

Here she is throwing it away!

See, there it is in the trash can (thankfully, I had emptied our trash earlier in the evening)!

Look! No more cast on my arm!! YAY!!

2-more weeks!

The girls and I went to the orthopaedic this afternoon for Bella's 2-week follow-up appointment. They took an X-Ray and it looks to have healed nicely. There is still a bit of an outline of the break/fracture (they are used synomously) but that was not a big deal - it was healing nicely. I could tell the doctor was not 100% comfortable with her not wearing the cast anymore, but he was reluctant to tell me she needed to wear it. I told him to tell me what to do (this is his speciality after all)! His concern was that if she did fall on it, it would break easier. He was still debating this in his head, when she slipped off the stool in the room and bumped her head. He immediately said "put it back on before you leave the office!" HAHA!! It was pretty comical. So we are still in the cast for 2 more weeks, making it a total of 4 weeks! We do not have to go back to see him again though! All is well!

My First Broken Arm

This is a picture of me when I broke my arm, for the first time, in January 1985 - I was 6 1/2!!

Thank You, Aunt Jenny

My sister, aka Aunt Jenny, sent Bella a "care package" since she hurt her arm! We finally got it today (literally took an entire week to get here - absurd)...Bella was very excited about her bracelets and immediately put them all on (it was a pack of 6)!! Then there were stickers (the girl's favorite), a purple pen and some erasers! Here she is showing off her new Purple Pen! She immediately said "write letter Jenny"!!!

Thanks again, Aunt Jenny!!!

New Accessories for those with Injured Arms

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I made a sleeve to cover Bella's cast and matching ice pack cover (well - of course you have to have matching ice pack covers!!!). Yesterday I made her a few more - one is pink with green polka-dots and the other is just a multi-colored striped one! She wore the striped one yesterday and has opted for the Princess one today!

Bella's Cast/Splint

This is Bella's cast/splint - we took it off last night to give her a shower. I keep calling it both - because it really isn't one or the other. The long sleeve on the left goes on first and I think is to protect her skin. Then you wrap the white padding (bottom center) around her hand/arm. Then you place the splint (top center) on the bottom of her arm and wrap the ace bandage (right) around her hand/arm and pin in on (and put tape over pin/clip so she doesn't try to pull it off).

Research

Torus fractures, or buckle fractures, are extremely common injuries seen in children. Because children have softer bones, one side of the bone may buckle upon itself without disrupting the other side; this is also known as an incomplete fracture. Treatment of a torus or buckle fracture is by casting the injury for a short duration, usually about three weeks. The word torus is derived from the Latin word 'Tori' meaning swelling or protuberance. Children commonly sustain this injury by falling on an outstretched hand. I tried to find a picture of one but none that I found looked anything like her x-rays. Perhaps we will be able to get a copy of her x-rays and I can post then!

Thanks Jen for the website you found! I hadn't even thought to look it up since I'd seen her x-rays and saw it!

Update on Bella's Arm

We went to the Orthopaedic doctor this afternoon and she will wear the splint/cast for 2 weeks at which time they will x-ray the arm to be sure it has healed! So, she is doing fine and isn't complaining that it hurts or anything!

Ice-ing the Injury

We were told at the ER to ice her arm 3 times a day for 20 minutes a time! She is actually doing really well with it - I put Micky Mouse (or her cartoon of choice) on TV and she puts her arm on a little pillow and then lays her princess ice packs over the arm. And, assuming we can keep Brooklyn from stealing it, she will leave it there until I take it off! She looks upset in this picture but it isn't because of the arm, it is because she didn't want me taking her picture (she kept saying "no picture Momma no picture)...

Prizes!

We had run some errands yesterday and when we got home there were prizes waiting for Bella! There were two balloons (a Tinkerbell one and a Hello Kitty one) and a cute little elephant! Bella was asleep when we got home, but I had them on the table and she was so excited when she woke up and saw them. The balloons either stay tied to her chair or she is carrying them around with her! {excuse the mess on my table, it ends up being a catch all for everything - it is always cleared off by dinner time!}

Thank you, Mi-Mi!!

Bella Goes to the Emergency Room and Leaves with a Cast

So I didn't get many pictures from last night - Brannon gives me a hard enough time about always wanting to take pictures and post them here...But as traumatic as this might be for her - it is a milestone and one she is reaching too early! I don't think I broke my first arm until I was 7...She's already an over-achiever - haha!

Here she is on the way to the Emergency Room - I went ahead and put them both in their pajamas after she fell. I wasn't sure at that point that we would be going to the ER, but I knew we might be in for a long night! She has her favorite blanket, her Monk and I had her princess book in the bag to read while we waited.
Here she is after they casted/splinted her arm. She wasn't a happy camper at this point. She had been asleep and then she woke up and was screaming unconsolably (is that a word?) and then they casted it. Poor baby...
And here is the "sleeve" I made to cover the ace bandage! She picked out the fabric this morning. She seemed quite pleased with my work! Although - I did not get a "Good Job, Mommy" like I normally do....

We go to the orthopaedic doctor tomorrow afternoon, so I will post another update then! Thanks to everyone for their thoughts and well wishes to Bella!

Last Night's Excitement

I was cooking dinner last night and the girls were playing (nicely) together. They were playing in their rooms - play for a few minutes in Bella's, then run to Brooklyn's. All seemed fine - until I heard Bella SCREAM! At first it seemed like her normal "I've fallen" scream, so to be honest, I didn't rush right to her (bad Mommy)! Well, it got worse and she was still screaming. By this point I'd headed in there but she was almost all the way to me. She kept saying "wrist". I got her some ice and held her. It started to swell and she continued to cry! It was almost time for Brannon to be getting off work but I called anyway to try and hurry him home. He got here and she had fallen asleep in my arms but was still whimpering and it was swollen. So...we headed for the Emergency Room in Bay Minette (they have better x-ray equipment). We left the house around 8 pm and got there by about 8:30, signed in and waited! We got back to Triage and had the best nurse (who also happened to be the mother of the chiropractor we bought Brannon's equipment from)! She was so good and patient with Bella, who was a bit crabby - it was late, she hadn't napped and we hadn't eaten supper at this point either! We were sent to registration and then back to the waiting room! Nancy (the nurse) was so sweet and actually took us back to our own room to get Bella away from all the germs in the ER! Brannon went to get something to eat while Bella and I waited, waited, waited and waited! We got X-rays and sure enough she has a "buckle fracture" in her left wrist. It isn't a complete "break", but you could definitely see it on the x-rays (even I could see it)! So they put it in a splint/cast with the fiberglass stuff and put an ace bandage over that! It was after midnight before we got out of the ER and then it was 12:45 by the time we got home. Brooklyn had stayed with her Nana and Paw-Paw (Brannon's dad and his wife). We have an appointment with an orthopaedic doctor tomorrow afternoon for our follow-up - will post more then. I do have a few pictures and will post those later today!

Black-Eye Update

Bella's eye is healing just fine! It is now a nice shade of green and yellow! She still tells everyone that she has a "boo-boo" and points to her cheek/eye!

Bella's Black Eye

Bella was pushing one of the chairs from the table around and she fell backwards and the chair fell on top of her and the top of the chair hit her cheek just below her eye! Boy - did it swell and bruise fast - almost immediately! I get very worried about eye and tooth injuries - but I didn't panic, I tried to get her to put some ice on it, which she did for about a second. Then I just kept an eye on her. She never skipped a bit - she did cry for a few minutes but being held by Mommie seemed to help!

Bella's Busted Lip

Bella was running around one day last week and tripped (on nothing) and fell and busted her top lip (it is the left side)...She didn't even cry when it happened - so we didn't know she had done it until bed time!! As you can see she was quite cooperative with us to take the picture!