Hot Pink

Finding clothes to wear with a cast can be challenging . . . .

Even princesses wear casts sometimes . . . .

So, I suppose I can't just tell you all that Elena broke her arm without sharing a few details. On Thursday night (Feb. 12th), I returned home from work to find Elena whimpering on the couch. Grandma Holmes was comforting her.

I asked, "What's the matter sweetie?"

And Elena said in her most pained voice, "I think I broke my arm."

I thought perhaps Elena was being a bit melodramatic (hmmm, from whom would she learn that?) especially since we were all still getting settled into our new routine while Chris was away. I asked Margie to tell me what happened. Apparently, Elena decided to do some gymnastics moves off the side of the couch--with her arms fully extended. I realized then that I should pay more attention to her complaints.

I called the after hours line at the pediatrician's office.

We scheduled an appt., kissed Grandma Holmes good-bye, took Christopher and Eva to Grandma Kramer's house, and went to the doctor's office. The doctor confirmed that Elena needed an x-ray and sent us to the radiologist at UVRMC. After x-rays, Elena and I shared a grilled cheese sandwich at Kneader's (gluten and dairy are a rare treat for us these days). The doctor called my cell phone to invite us back to the office for a splint. Turns out that she had a buckle fracture of both her radius and ulna. Her arm was in a splint until Valentine's Day, when she selected a glorious hot pink cast.

It's been 3 weeks. Her teacher tells me that she's very impressed with how well Elena has adapted to using her left arm to write. She really has been a trooper. Though she did submerge her entire cast in the bathtub seconds after I told her to rest it on the edge of the bathtub (despite the grocery bag wrapping, I had to blow it dry for about 15 minutes), we've had very few cast-related incidents. Now we're counting down 'til Friday when she gets her cast removed.