Broken Fingers

At gymnastics Oliver over-extended his fingers during a somersault. He was upset but calm and asked for ice. Emma Claire and I are in another building at gymnastics for a Mommy & Me gym class which gets out 15 minutes before Oliver's does. Once I walked back into the main gym where Oliver was and he saw me, he lost it and started crying. His coach came and told me what happened and that Oliver had been calm and ok until he saw me. He told me he thought Oliver had over-extended his fingers and that they would be sore.

 

Oliver wanted to leave gymnastics and calmed down once we were in the car. He only got upset for a few minutes so I didn't think he really hurt his fingers seriously. We went home and then took Chloe for swimming. Oliver didn't really complain except that he needed help with his seatbelt. He even told me he could start to bend his fingers (of course he didn't tell me that he couldn't bend two of the fingers at all). But, as the night went on, Oliver became grouchier upset at little things. I gave Oliver some Motrin and he told me he didn't want any more ice because it was cold. It wasn't until many hours later, after Oliver had gone to bed for the night, that I thought he may have broken his fingers. He kept waking up after falling asleep in pain. His fingers were now really swollen. Despite his protests, I told Oliver that we were going to the ER.

 

Since my Mom had left that afternoon and Matt was still in India, the three kids and I headed to the ER at the local hospital. We arrived around 8:45 p.m. to a packed ER where we waited and waited to see a physican and have an X-Ray. Around midnight Oliver finally had an X-Ray on his hand and it was determined that he had one broken finger and one possible fracture on another finger. His hand was splinted and we were told to see a pediatric orthopedist within 24 hours because Oliver's finger was fractured in his growth plate.

 

We got out of the ER at 1:15 a.m. I had three very tired children.

Waiting to have the X-Ray in the ER. Oliver was grouchy, upset and hurting before we got to the ER but once we got to a room to be seen, he turned on his Oliver charm like nothing was wrong at all. When the attending physician asked Oliver how he felt he said, "I'm happy!".

The kids managed to get up and go to school the next day despite their late, late night. I also got Oliver in to see a orthopedist that afternoon. After more X-Rays, she determined that Oliver had broken two fingers and would have to be in a splint on his fingers and hand for 3 weeks.

Oliver went to school in his new hand and finger splint the next day with no complaints. It wasn't until Thursday night that it hit him that his fingers and hand would be relatively useless for three weeks. Three weeks without full use of your hand to a five year old might as well be an eternity. Oliver was so upset and refused to sleep that night. Luckily Matt arrived home from India during the midnight negotiations with Oliver and was able to calm him down and convince him to go to sleep.

It was Friday afternoon when I got the call from the school nurse that Oliver accidentally lost his hand and finger splint in the lunchroom. Oliver "claims" his splint just fell off when he was throwing his food away. The very nice janitor, Bob, searched the trash can but couldn't find the splint. Since there was just a few hours left in the school day, the nurse made a makeshift splint for Oliver's fingers.

It wasn't until Oliver got off the bus that afternoon that I saw the makeshift splint and only one of his broken fingers splinted. He had her splint his index and middle finger when it is his middle and ring finger that are broken. When I asked him why he let her splint the wrong finger he told me he didn't think it mattered. He also declared his fingers were all better. Ha.

Much to Oliver's dismay, I had gotten a resupply of his splint and tape after the nurse's phone call. I re-splinted his broken fingers and made sure that it couldn't accidentally fall off. So far, so good. Almost one week down and three more to go.

My latest concoction to keep the splint on his fingers.