Monday morning Bryce and Thane were playing on my bed. Thane put the covers over his head, and amid the tussling, he fell off the edge. Immediately and expectedly, there were tears and screams.
When the tears didn't end, I knew something was wrong. Since he was grabbing his shoulder, I suspected he might have broken his collar bone. When he wouldn't leave my side for the rest of the morning insisting, "me not want it to hurt!" my suspicions intensified.
That morning was also our last swimming lesson of the summer. Obviously, Thane was in no condition to swim, but he sat next to me watching Aubree and Bryce while I tried to arrange child care so I could take Thane to Urgent Care.
Our neighbor told us her daughter broke her collar bone recently and her advice was to skip Urgent Care and go to the Pediatrician. She lent us a wrap until we could get in to our 3:15 appointment. With the wrap on, Thane had a fairly normal day, only complaining occasionally that his arm hurt.
Our pediatrician confirmed that it was indeed broken, then sent us off for x-rays to see just how bad. He gave Thane a sling to wear. The sling was miserable. Thane's arm kept sliding out and he'd forget not to use his arm and ended up screaming in pain regularly.
The good news from the x-ray was that it was a simple break and should heal pretty quickly on it's own (1-2 weeks of immobilization, 4-6 weeks till it's completely healed).
Once we got home we put the silly sling on the shelf and returned to the wrap. With the wrap on, Thane's doing quite well. I've been impressed with how much he can do one-handed (especially since he's right handed). But he still needs extra with lots of things like getting onto and off the potty, getting dressed, lying down in bed, and occasionally eating. Good fun.
A collarbone break is a very common childhood injury and he shouldn't have any long-term effects. Considering we've been parenting for 17 cumulative years, I guess we were probably due for our first broken bone.
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