Broken.

I mean, this is just insane. Abbe has broken his arm! How unfair does it get? The fact that small children break their arms is not that strange, but hasn’t my son spent enough time in a hospital?

It was this morning that Abbe fell out of our bed and hurt himself. I didn’t see how he fell but he must have fallen with his hand first. We tried to comfort him and then the day went on as per normal. However, after a while, we noticed how he hurt, for example everytime he fell and used his hands to break his fall. As the day went on, Abbe developed a way of protecting his hand, he avoided using it or allowing anything to touch it. He screamed loudly when I put on his gloves and later on that evening, we started to worry. I took Abbe to the Pediatric A&E.

We were lucky Abbe wasn’t there because of a flu. There are different doctors at the Children’s A&E and children with a cold had to wait many hours. But for once, we didn’t have to wait too long.

The doctor squeezed him a bit, sent us away for an X-ray, showed me the images and the fracture was indeed a fact. Time to get plastered. Or at least that’s what he thought.

Abbe – who by this stage have a long experience of hospitals – gets scared, angry and sad as soon as he sees anyone in a white uniform. And as soon as dad starts holding him, he knows what’s coming. So, we never got any plaster. The doctor tried some sort of splint instead, but since Abbe protested loudly, the doctor gave up that idea as well.

– Children at this age heal extremely well, he says.
– Even a significantly dislocated fracture usually sorts itself out on these little children.
– We shouldn’t put this little fellow under more stress than we have to. He’s been through so much already. I’ll make him a supportive bandage. This will be great anyway.

And this is when I want to turn to the entire orthopaedic department, to say: There is empathy even in your profession. All is forgiven.