Broken Arm on a 4 Year Old; a Retrospective

[kate2018]

This morning, I dropped off my 7 yr old for her 2nd day ever of in-person school (she loves 2nd grade so far), and I decided to take the 4 yr old to the park afterward.

She hit the swings, we walked down a path in the woods singing "John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt" and "Do Your Ears Hang Low". We had an all around grand time.

After 90 min of hanging out, I'm sitting on a bench when I hear a scream and some serious cries.. I know instantly it's my kid's voice.

I knew instantly, arms aren't supposed to be lumpy like that.

I picked her up and got her straight to the ER. No hesitation. Google said I was 7 minutes away. I made it in 5.

I spent the entire day at the hospital, she broke both bones in her left arm with a "buckle fracture" in one of em.

Fun fact: after anastheia, an unconscious kid will still scream in agony when their busted limb is being reset. That was a real neat experience..

I stayed strong and calm with her all day. Inside I was an absolute mess, but she didn't need freaked out Dad today. She needed Super Dad, telling her everything was gonna be all right. She needed Super Dad, keeping calm, stroking her hair, and making sure she knew she was safe. I have no problem crying in front of my kids. (Vulnerability and emotional honesty is a strength.) But today she needed Super Dad, and by God, she got him.

We ended up getting released literally with exactly enough time to get to the school and pick up her sister.

Today sucked so hard. My kid is a f*****g trooper. Today sucked. I'm exhausted.

Today sucked.

0/10 Would not recommend.

 

[quentinrb]

@kate2018 Hang in there, Dad. Your little girl is strong like bull, and she very clearly has the Super Dad every kiddo deserves.

 

[verdanavivian]

@quentinrb

Your little girl is strong like bull

I was not expecting to laugh so hard at a comment in this post

 

[katrina2017]

@verdanavivian I read the bull part in a russian accent. 11/10, would recommend

 

[meow6308]

@katrina2017 Hungarian for me

 

[synthia]

@quentinrb is good on plow

 

[httx]

@kate2018 You were Super Dad and that’s all you can do. The good news is your kid will not likely remember anything about the anesthesia experience. You will remember it forever, but the kid won’t.

 

[cyberwatt]

@httx That is equal parts comforting and deeply upsetting

 

[pinkyrose]

@kate2018 Me and all of my siblings broke arms at one point in our childhood. All I remember now is my parents letting me pick out a toy the day after here’s to hoping she recovers fast and tomorrow is better! Kids are resilient and can handle a lot more than people give them credit for

 

[truedragonslayer]

@pinkyrose I am always amazed at how fast my youngest kiddo adapts to injuries. About a year ago now he knocked his two front teeth out on the post of his bed because he had just learned the no monkeys jumping on the bed song at daycare. His mom and I had literally told him to stop jumping like 5 seconds prior to it happening so he took and extra big jump just to show off

Anyways, it wasn’t even the next day and he was back to acting like everything was normal and that he didn’t really need those teeth anyways. He has a slight lisp that we will have to get corrected once he starts up school and eventually gets his adult teeth in! But other than not being able to bite off spaghetti not having those teeth doesn’t bother him at all.

 

[jennc03]

@truedragonslayer

he had just learned the no monkeys jumping on the bed song at daycare

I mean, clearly he did NOT listen to the song.

 

[piggybank]

@pinkyrose Found the family with a trampoline

 

[jfhodge852]

@piggybank Or 3 wheelers

 

[cough]

@piggybank i was the kid jumping off my roof to the trampoline, seeing how far i could put the basketball net and still dunk with the trampoline.

never once broke my arm on that thing. never broke a thing actually.

i broke both my wrists (separate incidents) on my mountain bikes. and broke more bones than i care to admit playing hockey...

 

[hannahfaithful]

@cough I was at my grandma's house in Thanksgiving. Me and my cousin were outside playing in the pasture. There was a hay ring sitting on its side. So he got in it like a hampster and I held on to the outside. He started going. I got to the highest point and look down and he's still going. I jump and land wrong and broke my wrist. I hid the pain all day. Finally that night I told my parents something was wrong but down played it so I slept on it to see if it got better. Surprise, it didn't. Hurt so bad too.

 

[brilliant]

@pinkyrose Man I spent so much time in hospital with broken bones and shit that I had nurses asking my parents to leave the room so they could find out if I was being abused. I was just a clumsy kid with absolutely zero awareness that what I was about to do was dangerous and would hurt me LOL.

 

[john777111]

@kate2018 Good on you dad!

That fun fact sure is fun! Added info: pretty much, unless you’re being intubated, assume the anesthesia is simply an anti-anxiety/memory block…

 

[deacongirl]

@john777111 Pretty much. A sedative and some ketamine or similar for anterograde amnesia - you don't fight back and you don't remember the pain.

Much safer for small kids too.

 

[sarahelizabeth07]

@kate2018 i already commented once but here i am again with a totally separate comment.
i hope i can be super dad like you when this happens. i was super dad when i did the math on the fact that the doctors were doing the math on how much blood my wife lost after she gave birth. checking on how much whatever piece of bedding or padding is supposed to weigh so they can see how much heavier it was. this went on for hours.
i kept a smiling face the whole time. FIL shows up to meet his first (and only) grandkid and i kept a smiling face. because everything was alright as they scraped clots out with no anesthetic, not just fisting my wife but scooping what looked like canned beets out.

boy i hope i can be super dad when the tough gets going.

 

[technopalms]

@sarahelizabeth07 I almost died a week after my second baby was born because baseball / grapefruit sized clots were falling out at 3 am. I mumbled take the baby and call 911 and passed out. He held it all together and waited with the kids, newborn was crying, while I got taken away on a stretcher, showed up to the hospital (my in-laws came to the house with formula from the 24hr cvs. We didn’t even have it yet.) and did everything to help me that he could, all with a strong and calming presence. I was in so much pain and so upset about being separated from the newborn. Anyway when it was all over he collapsed. He had a few random breakdowns about it months later, like when he saw me finally holding my 2 year old and sing to her when I was allowed to lift again. He said he thought my kids were going to grow up without a mother. I was scared shitless but when I remember what condition the bathroom was in (three full adult diapers full of clots in the trash and a trail of blood from the bedroom to the bathroom like a murder scene) I can’t imagine how that must have felt.