Broken arm!

On Wednesday afternoon I took a call from Ms Middleton, she said that Tom had been involved in an accident at playtime and he wouldn't stop crying - he had been play fighting with some of the boys from the class below (a bit more boisterous than the boys in his class) and another boy had ran straight into them, sending them flying.  Tom's arm landed on another boy's jaw.  Although they are used to his crying a lot for minor injuries, she thought something really was up this time.  Matt went up to see him (he always cries more for me than him).  He came home a sorry sight, he was still crying and saying his arm hurt a lot and to be fair it was swollen.  We asked him if he wanted to see a Dr and he said yes.  I called the surgery and they said to take him straight to A&E in Lancaster so off we went.

They were advertising a 2 hour wait, not great, but do-able.  Tom was able to ask all questions asked of him by the receptionist and soon we were seen by a triage children's nurse who asked more questions, filled out a card and then sent us back to the waiting room.  The waiting room seemed to be full of school boys with various injuries - including one who had been hit in the head with a golf ball!  Someone asked us if we were from Ingleton - she knew us, we had no idea who she was?!  

Getting plastered!

We got seen by a lovely Romanian Dr who asked Tom lots of questions and prodded and poked him - he thought it was broken and sent us to x-ray.  Bad news, his humerus was broken, and he thought that he might be admitted as it was in an awkward place - oh joy, not the news we wanted to hear - I really didn't want to spend another night in hospital!  We then had to wait, wait, wait for an orthopaedic Dr to come to see him.  They never turned up!  A nurse did see us to the plaster room and started setting Tom's arm.  He was still in a lot of pain, and refused to have his arm manipulated into a right angle, so between some gas and air and a children's nurse distracting him with lots of questions, we got there.  He was put in a temporary cast - half bandage and half cast (to give room for swelling).  Then it was put in a triangular bandage.  The nurse then gave us an appointment to return tomorrow to see the Dr and get a new, lighter cast put on.  We finally left the hospital over four hours after arriving (humph - not quite the 2 hours they were advertising!)  We missed school open day today too - which was a shame.

On Thursday afternoon we got Tom out of school early to get him to hospital for in time for his 3.30 appointment - not sure why we bothered, as they were running very very late, so we had to wait, wait, wait, wait to see the Dr.  When we finally got to see him, we were less than impressed!  I think he stayed in the room less than 2 minutes.  He was very gruff and disappeared before we could ask him any questions.  He said that A&E shouldn't have told us he would be put in a new cast as the cast is the least important thing, it is the position that is important.  He then got rid of the triangular bandage and put him in a pink sling and then disappeared.  The nurse told us that he had to sleep in the sling and then we were sent on our way after making an appointment to see the Dr again in 3 weeks time in Kendal.  

Sling 2

Much better!

When we got home, we discovered that we couldn't get the sling off over his head, which meant we couldn't get his top off.  I could cut it off, but it was 3 weeks before we were to see the Dr again, we couldn't cut a shirt a day!  We finally forced the sling off, but it took both me and Matt to do it and caused Tom a lot of pain, surely that couldn't be right?!  We both were depressed by it all.  If we needed to move his arm so he was in pain twice a day to dress him, his bone wasn't going to mend was it?  I spoke to two nurses I know - they gave various bits of advice, one who used to be an A&E nurse was shocked that he was still in the temporary cast and that the sling was so badly put on.  

Friday morning, we had to dress him in an oversized T-shirt, with his arm inside as there was no way we could get a T-shirt on him properly, even with cutting the sleeve!  We got on the phone to our local surgery asap and got a 11.15 appointment to see the nurse.  Matt took him, the nurse said that the care we received yesterday was unacceptable and that we should phone the department and demand they sort it out.  In the meantime she got us a prescription for a better sling to put him in.  We called the hospital, but no-one answered, so we went out for lunch to try to cheer ourselves up.  Once back, Matt tried again, got through first time and spoke to a helpful Sister Monica who told us to come back, she had a better sling that would suit him better.  We picked Tom up from school again (poor thing had only been back an hour!) and took him in.  We got seen to 5 mins after arriving and got given a much better sling.  I had taken a school shirt with me with a cut sleeve to see if we could get it on - we could, it is a 3 person job, but we managed it fine.  We were all relieved.  He still has to sleep with it on, but it is way more comfortable for him, and it means he can wear clothes on his top half.  Such a shame we didn't see Sister Monica yesterday!  Anyway, we drove home a happy family. Tom was in high spirits, he attacked his dinner with gusto, using chopsticks to pick up the hard things.  He went to bed a happy boy.  

It's going to be hard avoiding sports for the summer holidays, he had football camp for the first week, swimming lessons and membership for the outdoor pool, but all of that is out now.  Oh hum, maybe we will finally get some weight put on him over the summer as he won't be active.  At least he broke his left arm - could have been worse!