our first (and hopefully last) cast

last night, i came home from a pto board meeting to find mason sleeping in our room with his clothes from school still on. i wasn't shocked because the exhaustion of school hit mason on wednesday. he came home so out of sorts that everything made him burst into tears and he had even put himself to bed before dinner to gather himself.

when he fell off the swing in the basement that night, it was difficult to tell if he was really injured or that was just the last straw to push him over the edge from exhaustion. so that is how he came to sleep in our room.

where he cried in his sleep most of the night. matt and i had examined him as well as he would let us around 9pm. his elbow was clearly swollen but there was no discoloring and he could move everything so we waited until morning.

it was pretty clear in the morning that we needed to take him in. it was still only swollen, but it was very swollen. like twice the size of his other arm.

i had to get everyone else off to school so matt took mason to the hospital while i did the school drops and then i joined them. a few x-rays and it was clear that he had broken his humerus just above his elbow (that was guessed during the exam too). his arm was too swollen to rule out needing a pin put in to ensure the bone healing straight, so they cast him up and then scheduled to see us in a week for more x-rays.

mason was a trouper! but he did get a cookie and we did bring him the ipad...

mason picked light blue for his cast but the guys wrapping him were teasing that they were all out of blue and he would have to use pink and purple stripes. mason wasn't too sure that they were joking.

everyone was very reassuring that this is a very common injury from swing and monkey bar falls. and they said we did the right thing to wait overnight too. the extra time helps people to not come in unnecessarily and if we had come in last night we would have spent 6 hours waiting. all of this made me feel much better.

casts are waterproof now! they are made out of 'bubble wrap' and fiberglass. so while he can still swim this weekend and take baths/showers, he can't go to gym class or play soccer. there is just too much risk that he might fall and smash his hand.

we were told to set him up with a movie and prop his arm up to keep the swelling out of his hand. he didn't mind one bit. (plus, he was exhausted from the pain keeping him up all night!) love.