Broken Bone

Can you tell what is wrong with this picture?

Brand was in our backyard, playing with friends after school, when he tried to jump from the top of the ladder to the middle of the slide. He had made the jump many times and was somewhat famous with the neighborhood kids, but on this attempt something went wrong. Poor kid, I don't think he will be trying that again (or shall I say he isn't allowed to try that again).
As the x-ray shows he split the radius in his left arm just above his wrist. And if that wasn't bad enough the two ends of the bone were overlapping about an inch, making it very tricky to set. Brand had to be sedated because setting this type of break is very brutal and they often break the ulna in half in the process. As his mom all I can say is thank goodness he was dreaming while they set the bone. I couldn't watch and Josh only made it through the first of two attempts before he joined me on the outside of the curtain. After many minutes of pulling and twisting it worked and the doctors were able to straightened out the radius without breaking the ulna or having to pin it together in the operating room. The bone is still very unstable and can slip back even while in the cast. The two ends don't fit exactly the same way, but in kids it usually adapts with time. He will get another x-ray next week to make sure everything is still in place. If it has slipped back he will need surgery to pin it together.

Brand is the bravest kid I know. He barely made a sound as we drove the 2 blocks to the hospital (yes, we actually live next to the Navy hospital). It took an hour and a half before he was given any pain medicine, if you can even call 400 mg of ibuprofen pain medicine. Around this same time he started going into shock so they moved him from the waiting room to a bed. The doctor finally saw the x-rays after two hours and then gave him morphine. It most likely was because he was going into shock, but through the whole thing he stayed calm, waited patiently, and allowed the doctors to take care of him. He was such a tough kid. Here he is with a morphine induced smile.

Brand's favorite things about breaking his arm. He got to stay home from school for two days, watch movies and play games. He got balloons and a gigantic cookie from our friends (thank you so much Cat!). He got a triple scoop ice cream cone from Big Dig for holding still for the IV. All his friends can sign his cast. He is the current "King of the Playground" after such a fantastic fall. And lastly, he has a cool story about how he broke his arm.

Notice how he has the same shirt on from the day before. We were both too afraid to mess with his arm just yet.