Broken Bones

When you have kids every day is a crap shoot. They go out, they play, they play sports, the do stupid stunts...

It is no different when you have a 15 year old son who is supposed to know better and be somewhat responsible. You see he has an ATV. A 400 cc monstrosity that my husband decided to buy him if he pulled his grades up one quarter...not keep them up for a year or make A's or B's for the year...but if he pulls it up to at least C's. No I am not bitter...just little irked that he did not think this deal through.

Well my 15 year old is a speed demon. Not much different from his father or his grandmother. The all seem to have a lead foot. Do a little faster than the speed limit. Or as my husband says "I just drive where it is comfortable." And time after time I have told him he needed to slow down. To stop driving like an idiot. Do you think he ever listened?

Yesterday I received a call. "Mom don't be mad at me." Right then and there my heart sank because I knew something was wrong. A bad way to start a conversation. He had an accident. It turns out he was driving down the road and was rounding a corner. He did not see the other car coming the other direction. You see my son was in the middle of the road and not in his lane. He might have been driving fast but he swears he was not. Any how, he swerved to miss the car over corrected and crashed. The ATV landed on top of him.

He gets home barely able to move. Looks like death warmed over. I took one look at him and decided to take him to the hospital. We get there and they do the normal...are you allergic to any medication, have you had any surgeries....The do the battery of movement tests and xrays. We get put back in the exam room about 2 hours later (one good thing about living in a small town...short waits in the emergency room. If we were still in Chicago we would still be waiting.) and the xray tech comes in and hands me a CD of his xrays. I look at this an know right away that this is not good. The Doc comes in and he says..."You have a broken clavicle and a possible broken growth plate in your wrist. It is more than likely broke the way it is lifted up in your xray." He slaps on a brace on his wrist and a sling on his arm to keep it a 90 degree angle and immobile. And he wants to see him back next week to see how he is doing, to make sure that the swelling comes down and see if they will need to put a hard cast on him.

On the way home he thanks me for making him wear a helmet. He thinks that if he did not have one on he would have been hurt worse. I did not tell him I told you so. I told him I am glad he understands why I wanted him to wear one and that I am not just being a crazy mom. OK sometimes I feel like I am. I worry. About him getting hurt. But he is a kid and he will get hurt.

Cam wakes up in extreme pain. Barely can shower. Can not even put on his socks or button his pants. I spread cream cheese on his bagel, pour his milk. I do however make him go to school. Yeah I am a mean mom, but he did do this to himself. And he was capable of walking. But I do feel bad for him. He is in pain. I know that. I feel terrible for him. When he came home he was in even moire pain. I gave him a pain pill and a glass of Chocolate milk. Made him a pizza for dinner and then sent him off to bed. I will always take care of him whenever he needs me. He is my son and I love him. But there are limits.

I know he is going to have a restless sleep even with the pain meds. He can not get comfortable. He leans back his shoulder hurts. He sits up his shoulder hurts. And he has a tendency to sleep on his side and his left shoulder is fractured and his right wrist is broke....it makes it really difficult to sleep.

But broken bones heal. And he will get better ever day. He might not think so but he will.