Abby and Anna take weekly horseback riding lessons a few minutes away. Usually they alternate (Anna on Tuesday and Abby on Thursday). Well a few weeks ago, in early March, their instructor called to have both girls come on the same day. Anna rode Rebel, their usual horse and Abby rode Kelly (for the first time). Well, after 30 minutes Anna called me and told me Abby fell off the horse and I needed to pick her up. I rushed over (it is only 4-5 minutes away), and Abby was on the porch swing crying, and saying her arm hurt. I looked at her arm and it looked fine, I carried her to the car, took her home and gave her a bath (she was covered in dirt and leaves from falling).
Meanwhile Anna told the the story of the fall...
Abby was on the horse (Kelly). At first Kelly was walking, then trotting, then running, then galloping, then bucking. Abby was hanging on the horse by the hair of its neck, while it was trying to buck her off, then Abby went flying off. Anna was amazed how long Abby stayed on before flying off.
After her bath, she calmed down, and then I went to put her nightgown on and she yelped out and then cried. We figured something must be really wrong. Matt took her to get x-rays at the ER and sure enough she had a broken arm, a complete break about 1" down from her shoulder.
Okay, the crazy part of all of this. Did you know that you can break your arm and it does not swell or bruise or show at all? Abby's arm looked identical to her other arm. It never was swollen or discolored or anything. If it wasn't for the x-ray (and the pain of course) you would never have guessed it. Just a FYI in case you ever think your child is faking it...LOL.
Anyway, Abby was put in a sling and actually they did not cast it because of the location of the break. A cast would be more likely to pull apart the break with the weight of the cast, then to help it. So she missed a few days of school and then wore a sling for 3 weeks. She had it x-rayed again and it was healing very well. After another week or so, she took off the sling but still had another month of no high impact/risk activities (bikes, trampolines, slides, monkey bars, Etc). She still has 2 more weeks, and is getting restless about it. She has been a real trooper about the whole situation. Only complaining a few times, and being extra brave.
Thank goodness kids can heal so quick!
Oh BTW, yes Abby does want to keep doing horse lessons. She says I will ride horses, but just not that horse.
No comments:
Post a Comment