The cast

Amelia suffered a small bone fracture near her elbow this week. The accident occurred during the recess program in aftercare at school. According to her description, Amelia was running in the gym, tripped over another student, and slammed her elbow into the cinder-block wall of the gymnasium. Ouch. Poor girl.

The accident occurred on Wednesday and Amelia did not appear to be in much pain that evening. However, after awakening twice during the night complaining of pain we decided to take Amelia to the doctor on Thursday to have her arm examined. After consultations with three different doctors in two offices and nearly five hours spent in waiting rooms and doctors offices (yes, our health care system is broken!!), the orthopedic specialist determined that Amelia must have a thin fracture in one of her "growth bones" near her elbow. The solution to heal the fracture (and also to minimize the pain) would be to put Amelia's arm in a cast.

Amelia was a good sport during the examinations and during all of the waiting time. We read several stories and played lots of hangman that day. When it came time to select the color of her cast, Amelia did not hesitate one millisecond in selecting pink. And let me just say, it is one bright pink (think the color of a pink highlighter) cast!

So the only amusing part in this story was Amelia's behavior after the cast was on her arm. We finished our final doctor visit on Thursday afternoon about 30 minutes prior to the elementary school's dismissal. Since I had pulled Amelia out of school tht morning at 9:15 and we had not been back yet, I wanted to go back to the school to pick up her things and also to consult with Amelia's teacher as to any work she missed that day.

We arrived at the school just as the children were lining up for dismissal and Amelia immediately became the subject of attention. The children couldn't help but notice the neon pink cast, plus the fact that she was in school briefly and then left for the rest of the day led to dozens of first graders asking, "Amelia, what happened to you?". Amelia was very shy at first, hiding behind me, trying to shield her arm from the stares of the children. But after explaining to a few kids that had approached her that she did not have a broken arm (the most common inquiry) but that it was "just a fracture of one of my bones", Amelia started to gain confidence in explaining the situation. By the time she was asked what had happened by some of her teachers, Amelia was a pro in describing the injury. And by the time we got to John's school later that afternoon and the teachers there asked what had happened, Amelia was almost sassy in the way she stated, "I have a small fracture in my bone, but it will be fixed by wearing this cast for three weeks. Not a big deal at all!"

Below is a shot of Amelia with her cast. I vote that she wears that pink headband for the next three weeks since it matches her look so well.