Hanky's Broken Arm

The extended Stilley clan gathered in Breckenridge, CO this June for a week together. Things got off on the wrong foot when baby Abby got altitude sickness and Rob's whole family had to turn right back around and head home. The rest of us managed to have some fun despite missing them, and on our last day in CO our family plus Grammy and Poppy decided to do a bike ride to Frisco. Hanky did great until the very end when the usually gentle trail suddenly got very steep and curvy. 

6/28/13

Laura had warned him to brake, but for some reason he took the turn at full speed. He wiped out bad, and was screaming, "My arm! My arm!" when we came to him. Laura got to him a little before I did, and immediately thought he had a fracture. I felt panicked, but thankfully Laura went into doctor mode. We took Franny out of her trailer, put Henry in, and Laura biked him to the ER that was luckily about 100 yards away. (The same ER Abby had visited earlier in the week.)

He was in a lot of pain until the x-ray tech moved his arm a certain way and he was suddenly much better. The doctors realized the pain was actually from "nurse-maid's elbow," which is a nice way of saying a dislocated elbow. It's painful until it's popped back in. So there was hope at this point that there wasn't actually a fracture, but the x-rays revealed there was a buckle fracture in his radius close to the wrist. Buckle means that it sort of collapsed on itself as opposed to pointing in different directions. As far as fractures go, it was a fairly minor one. They put a temporary splint on him and sent us home.

later that day at our Breckenridge rental

It was a very intense and unpleasant couple of hours, but his pain mercifully did not last long, thanks to his elbow being put back in place and getting some strong medicine in him. We had a two-hour drive to the Denver airport the next morning, and Henry had a little more fun with some car sickness. Those mountain roads can make anyone carsick, and we think his pain meds may have made it worse. He wanted to drink a lot of water, which he ended up puking in the rental car. Needless to say, we were relieved to finally make it to the airport, where he felt much better. After getting a special test on his splint courtesy of the TSA, we had an uneventful flight back home. We made an appointment to go see Laura's cousin Amanda at the orthopedist's office where she works, and she put on a fluorescent yellow cast of Henry's choosing. (He wanted it to glow in the dark, and was disappointed when it didn't.)

7/1/13

He didn't have any discomfort with the cast to speak of, which was a relief. He never even complained of itching. I was amazed how good natured he was about having it on. But it was still a bit of a tough month because he couldn't be active. We unfortunately missed t-ball for the year, which he and I had both been looking forward to since I was to be a coach. The kids and I all got a little stir-crazy at times, but overall the cast ended up being less of a hassle than I had feared. He had full use of his fingers which helped a lot.

We got the clear to get rid of the cast exactly one month after it was put on with the good news that his arm healed perfectly. It hurt him to move his wrist for the first few minutes after the cast was off, but he recovered quickly.

8/1/13

He wanted to get on his bike the very same day, which made me nervous, but not him! Despite my nerves, I was proud of him for wanting to hop right back on.

And that evening we had a celebratory picnic and swim at Bryant Lake Beach.