broken boy

Here are some things a five year old boy can’t do with one arm in a cast:

Get up from bed/sofa/floor independently

Button pants or shirts (looking at six weeks of elastic waistbands and t-shirts)

Buckle his seat belt

Play catch

Maintain his balance

Lift the cast with the broken arm–he has to use the other arm

Swim–worst of all.  It’s his favorite summer pastime.

And the things he CAN do?

Watch TV

Play video games

Toilet himself, thanks to the elastic waist pants

Run and play tag (onlookers fervently hoping he doesn’t FALL)

It’s going to be a long six weeks.  Did you know that you can distract a boy from his itchy casted arm by tickling the rest of him?  or with extensive back scratching?  Bless his heart.  Bless all of our hearts.

Here’s an update from July 21:   the arm is not aligned properly, so the doctor is going to put the boy to sleep on Friday and further reduce the fracture to help it heal better.  We are not looking forward to this.