Thumb in a Cast!

Thanks for all your comments asking about BB’s hand/thumb.  He has fractured his thumb – but just a small fracture thankfully.  He went to school OK – but was worried he might not be able to do gym or cello.  I said he would be fine but I didn’t really look carefully at his hand as he hadn’t even mentioned it till we were en route to school.  I told him to tell his teacher that he had hurt it and that he had to be careful.

He had a friend home for lunch and a play – and they had a lovely afternoon together, with no mention of the hand/thumb.  I was taking both to swimming and it wasn’t till the point we were going out the door that BB said he didn’t think he could swim.  I said he would be fine as he had done gym in the morning!  Off we went, but he was very unhappy when we got there.  We bumped into the coach as we arrived, so she took a look and we noticed a bit of discrete bruising appearing and that his hand was clearly more swollen than it had been.  She suggested that it might be broken as her son had had something very similar.  A couple of friends then had a look at it (one of whom ignored her son’s fractured hand for some time!). After lots of humming and hawing  between us, I decided to take him to A&E at the Sick Kids in Edinburgh.

The staff were amazing and unbelievably efficient.  We went through the system very smoothly and pretty quickly, only having to wait for a plaster technician as she was on her break. Assuming all is fine they will take the cast off after a week but he has to give up all his sporting activities for at least three weeks.  He’s not very  happy about that.  The doctor was great and very reassuring as he said it can be very hard to know whether a child has broken a bone, as they have so many bumps and bruises and their bones are still flexible and growing.  BB’s fracture is small and he said it should heal up very quickly and the cast is more for his comfort than to aid the healing process.

He was very tired and a bit emotional after all that, not to mention hungry as we were there over tea time.  The cast and sling hasn’t stopped him playing on the iPad though!

In other news a friend and I delivered the food that we collected at school for the local Food Bank.  They were delighted to receive our donations and spent some time showing us around and telling us how they operate. It was quite a humbling experience listening to their stories of Food Bank users and made us realise how lucky we are.   That was my good deed for the day and makes up for the guilt of being a bad mummy!!