Sunday, November 04, 2007

Bounce Houses are Evil

Updated to show X-ray:

You probably cannot see it in this image, but there is a tiny fracture on the lower distal fibia. In other words, he fractured his ankle.

We had another trip to the emergency room yesterday. The ER on a Saturday night, so fun. It all started so innocently. Jonathan and the rest of the 4th grade choir from his school sang at a local shopping event. It is a yearly fundraising event for the hospital (ironically) and I was looking forward to seeing all the stuff after the performance. So...

The wise organizers had rented bounce houses so people could drop off their kids and shop in relative peace and quiet. Genius, right? I paid $5.00 for each boy to have unlimited jumping time, thinking I just bought myself about 30 minutes of shopping by myself. I walked back into the shopping area and was talking to a photographer friend at her booth when my phone rang.

"Mrs. Jenkins? You son has hurt his leg in the bounce house." Ugh. I was thinking would just check in and make sure everything was OK. To be honest I thought it was probably Jackson, who has a very low tolerance for pain, and that he would be fine once I told him it was OK. But no...I walked into the room and saw Jonathan, who actually has a fairly high pain tolerance, almost in tears. He is a pretty tough guy, and there we kids in there that he knew, so he was not going to cry if he could help it. He had jumped down the slide and landed wrong. His ankle was starting to swell. After talking to him briefly, I decided we needed to leave ASAP. This was no easy feat considering he could not walk.

First I took him to my parents' house where we did the Rest, Ice, Compression, Elevation thing. In the meantime I called a friend and borrowed a set of crutches, just the right size. My dad was convinced that nothing was broken, and he is usually good at diagnosing things, but I was not sure. The more I read on the Internet, the more I thought we should get an x-ray just to be sure. So off we went to the ER.

About an hour and a half later we were informed that there actually was a little break in his ankle. It looks like a little "tooth sized" chip on his right ankle. I will call his regular doctor in the morning who is probably going to recommend he see an orthopedist. He is out of commission for a few weeks at least. He has joined a swim team, but he won't be doing that for a while. Recess and even lunch are going to be challenges this week.

Life has been interesting the last 24 hours. We all take walking for granted. Everything is harder for Jonathan right now. But he is tough and is coping pretty well. If you think about it, say a prayer that he heals quickly and uneventfully.

2 comments:

SG said...

OUCH! Ok I know this sound goofy but after I had multiple little hairline fractures in my toe last year i will never look at any type of fracture in the same light. They hurt! Who knew? i always just thought the crutches were the worst part...But the fracture really hurts! We are all so sorry for you Jonathan!

Julie said...

Life with boys is never boring, that's for sure! Hope he is feeling better soon - poor guy!
Julie