Joseph!
But that doesn’t mean he didn’t try. 🙁
I got a call from Ron around 11:15am that the school called and Joseph “took a dive off the slide and hurt his wrist.” The school thought it was serious enough that we should come get him. So, I left work and went to get him.
He was sitting in the office, in a white sling with an ice pack in a sandwich baggie, with tears in his eyes and his backpack on his shoulder. I guess he was ready to go. I took a look and noticed two things … it was red … probably from the ice and it was swollen. Go figure.
I still didn’t think anything was wrong, but what do I know?
I had already called the Pediatrician at work and got their earliest appointment. But it wasn’t until 1:30. We had an hour to kill. Since I knew Joseph hadn’t had lunch, we picked up Wendy’s and headed home for a few minutes. At 1:15 pm, we left home and headed to the Pediatrician’s office.
Molly, the nurse, asked what happened. As told to her by Joseph…
“My friend Jimmy and me, we were going to do extreme stunts. We climbed up to the top of the slide and jumped off … well, I did, Jimmy didn’t. I got my feet set and then I jumped, but I think I slipped on some water and so I kinda fell and landed on my hand… well my wrist. It was fun while I was in the air.” 🙄 <--- that's me. 🙂 So that was Joseph's explanation ... extreme stunts. Go figure. He repeated the "situation to the Dr. too and she took one look and said she thought it was broken. *I* personally still didn't believe it. Joseph definitely hurt, but it didn't seem *bad*. He wasn't crying non stop, so I figured a sprain at most. Dr. Kocsis thought the big bone was broken, but the little delicate bones were fine because he could move his fingers. So, we were referred to Cary Radiology... and off we went... 15 minutes the opposite way. The people at Cary Radiology were super nice. They fit us in very quickly and said to wait in the waiting room for the results and to hear next steps. A bit later, the receptionist called me and told me Molly (the nurse from our Ped's office) was on the phone for me. Hunh? I took the call and she explained that they (our Ped's office) was working to get us an appointment but were having some trouble and we could take the xrays and go and they would call on my cell. Hunh? Take the xrays? Why? So I asked and she said "They didn't tell you?" Tell me what? "He does have a fracture." What?!??!!? No way! Sure enough. So, our next step was to get an appointment with an Orthopedist. Geez. They got us in at Blue Ridge Orthopedics and Sports Medicine out by Rex hospital. The appointment was for 4:15, so again, we had an hour to kill.... a trip to McDs, gas and a car wash filled that time. 🙂 Got to the Orthopedist office and Joseph meets Joey ... an 8 year old 4th grader at another elementary school who is there to replace his splint with a formal cast for his broken wrist. 🙄 What is up with 4th grade boys? Apparently, this is also when RON broke his ankle! According to Joey, his Dad, uncle, brothers and cousins all broke some body part in the 4th grade too! 😆 We met with Dr. Rosenbloom and he confirmed, through physical exam and review of the xrays (which I brought and saw myself) that Joseph did in fact break his wrist. He has a non-displaced psalter 2 radial fracture of his left wrist. They splinted him for 4 days to allow the swelling to go down and on Friday, he has to return to get his official cast. All because he "slipped" when doing "extreme stunts," from the top of a slide, in a moment of stupidity at 9 years old, in the 4th grade. 😀