King Of The Hill

It's never good when you get a call from the school nurse. We made it almost a full 2 quarters before it happened. Somehow it always seems to happen when Kyle is out of town. 2+ months (more than 2 months!!!!) he didn't need to travel. Yet, on THE FIRST day he is gone. There it was, the dreaded call from the school nurse.

What I heard on the other end was not at all what I was expecting!  Ben had fallen outside at recess and hurt his arm. When he was first brought into the nurses office, she said he was white as a ghost. He got some ice, tried to go back to class, and was back in the nurses office because he was in such pain. So, I found a coworker to see my last patient of the day and off I went. I still thought he was over reacting a bit....until I heard from Ben that he had fallen 4-5 feet off a snow bank landing on his extended hand. All my fellow therapists (and even my brother and sister in law) know what a recipe for disaster this is.

So I thought it would be a good idea to bring him in to Urgent Care at our Grand Rapids clinic. We got there....first in line (which is good because influenza is spreading like wildfire in the community). To my disappointment I learned that my least favorite provider was there. I briefly contemplated leaving and going to the ER. But, I thought....I know hands and I can guide this provider.....what I really needed was an xray. She came in to see him, conducted a fairly good physical exam. Then ordered xrays....on.the.wrong.arm!!! Which took 45.minutes.to.fix!!! Once we got past that....xrays revealed no obvious fractures, but some suspicious areas on the growth plate of the radius in the wrist. So we went on our way almost 3.hours.later. Ben had a wonderfully heavy fiberglass splint that went from his wrist right up to his shoulder, and had to wait for the radiologist to read the report.

The next day (after a long, painful, and Ben would like to add itchy night) after being told the report was still not in by the clinic...but being told by orthopedics that the report was in (sometimes it pays to have connections)....we made an appointment for Ben to see someone in orthpedics.

Good news awaited us: bad sprain, but no break. She put him in a wrist brace for 2 weeks. She honed in on the suspicious area in the growth plate in the distal radius as well when she looked at the xrays....but thought if it was a fracture it was small and for the most part the growth plate looked intact. At least the big bulky fiberglass splint was removed and he could move his elbow (Ben would also like to add itch his arm).

Plan is for him to return in 2 weeks if still painful, because a lot of times wrist fractures don't show up on xray for about 10 days or so. Fingers crossed that won't be needed.