See that little bump on the bottom of the lower bone? That's the green stick break. It's technically a broken bone, but he doesn't have to wear a cast. He has to wear a splint for about 2 weeks, and hopefully, after those 2 weeks, he'll have no more pain and he can remove the splint and return to normal activities.
So, how did he break it? Doing what I asked Bud NOT to let him do. They went hog hunting for Chig's (Kennidy) 10th birthday. Bud had recently put a roof on his "mule" so the kids or dogs (or whoever else) could ride up there. Leroy has one on his mule, and Bud wanted one too. Oh, and the roof also provides shade. That too.
Here's the mule with the newly-installed roof.
I asked Bud not to let the kids ride up there because I didn't want them to fall off. They're still small children, remember. Bud said it's no big deal and all the kids do it. I knew I wasn't going to win the arguement - I don't go hog hunting with them, so I can't stop it.
Needless to say, the boys asked to ride up there, and even though Bud told them he wanted them to ride in the backseat, he allowed them to get up on the roof. And sure enough, he took a turn too fast and JD fell off the top. He complained about his wrist througout the day, but it wasn't swollen and he could move it, so Bud didn't think much of it.
We monitored it that evening and the next morning and still no swelling or bruising, but JD was definitely nursing it. We were convinced it was probably just a sprain so we were trying to get him to use it a little bit. Poor little JD - he was trying. He even went outside and tried to hit baseballs. And I think, just to make us feel better, he said that swinging the bat helped to loosen it up and it felt better.
Then we went to Laser Legend - it was JD's reward for getting straight As on his last report card. He originally wanted to go to Power Swing and hit baseballs, but when he hurt his wrist, he opted for laser tag. Bud really wanted to go to Power Swing so he tried to convince JD, but JD wasn't having it. He said his wrist really hurt and he couldn't hit baseballs. So Laser Legend it was. We spent a few hours there and he never complained about his wrist, so we went on with our plans.
Bud and I dropped the kids off at my dad and Linda's house so we could go have a nice dinner we'd planned. Shortly after we left, Linda called me and said that he was crying and complaining that it really hurt. She put some ice on it and we hurried through dinner - talking non-stop about him and his arm, and decided that we'd take him to the Med Clinic on our way home. We knew it was late, but we needed to go and find out what was wrong. So we did.
And that's when we found out it was a "green stick" break. Here's JD getting his splint put on.
The worst part is that we made him wait a whole day to get it checked out. We were pretty convinced it was just a sprain, and felt terrible when we found out it was a break instead. I've heard stories of parents who've done that -- thought their child's injury was less serious and didn't take them to the doctor right away. I didn't realize how easily that could happen. Bud and I feel terrible for making him wait. But he's a tough little guy, that's for sure.
He was really upset about having to wear the splint at first. He didn't want to walk out of the exam room with it on. His eyes teared up and he said "People are gonna think I'm weird. And what's Timmy gonna say?" Poor little guy --- the things that worry their minds. We convinced him that NO ONE will think he's weird and EVERYONE is gonna be interested and will want to know what happened. He seemed ok with that and walked out into the waiting room.
The next morning, I texted a picture to Kelli and asked Timmy what he thought. He said he was sad and felt bad for JD because he might not get to do the stuff he wants. But he DEFINITELY didn't think that JD looked weird.
