2004-11-15 - 10:20 a.m. Broken Bones When I was in the fourth grade, I was in the great city of Toronto. I was climbing across a very high section of monkey bars, as I slipped and fell. I broke my fall with my arm, and I heard it pop. It hurt, and I cried a little as my parents walked over. When they asked how it felt, I told them that I would be okay. My mother was worried about the swelling, but I told her that I was going to be fine. We finished our day at the zoo, and then I went to an amusement park. They had these zip lines and trampolines with a ball pit that you could jump off of and got into the ball pit. I tried the zip line a few times, but it was hard to hand onto it. The trampoline was much more fun. Then on the cab ride back to the hotel, I told them to pull the cab over and I puked on the sidewalk. My parents iced my arm, and I ate ice cream and I was pretty happy. My dad wasn�t too worried because he said that if I broke my arm, I would know it. So we knew it wasn�t broken, probably just sprained. A week later at school I was still feeling a little pain, and it worried me because now it hurt to climb or pull on things to hard. Very uncomfortable indeed. So I told my parents and they decided to bring me in for an X-ray, just a week later after we had return from Toronto. The doctor took the X-rays and looked at my arm, and told me right away, �I�m not sure what is going on, but his arm is broken in two places� I guess I didn�t know what it should feel like. The doctor also gave me additional bad news. �The broken bone has started to heal over the week that�s gone by. We are going to need to re-break the arm, and then we are going to need to set it.� So what that meant was he was going to have to with him hands, break my bone open again, and then pull it apart and slide it into place. If you know me, there is only one thing I really hate about the doctors and that is needles. That�s important to note, because I had to get local anesthesia in order to numb the pain in my arm so that the doctor could do this. It is very important to note, because you need to understand that I don�t like needles so much that I decline the anesthesia in this situation (as well as when I have had any work done to my teeth). I am not a man. I am not a tough guy. I wasn�t trying to earn a pair of nuts. I don�t like needles. I smiled as he snapped my arm. However, as he went to set it the moving of the tendons and bones was very uncomfortable and I turned green slightly. Though I didn�t get sick, I did not enjoy the setting aspect of the encounter. Mind you, I was in the fourth grade at this point. So I know now what having my arm broken feels like, twice. I have since discovered that there is something about my physiology that allows my pain sensors to not be triggered by overextension, twisting, or the breaking of my bones. It�s not as nice as it sounds. You see, now, I think it might have happened again. I had an incident hurting my arm a week ago (Monday) and it hasn�t healed at all. In fact, it hurts more today than a week ago. I am worried that it might be something like a break or a fracture. It is hard to remember exactly what it felt like since it was so long ago, and I really do believe that it�s more muscle related, but you never know. So forgive me if it doesn�t seem like I am around a lot. It�s not the easiest thing in the world to type. It�s a little painful, pulling against the muscles (which my new theory maybe the new pain is caused by something not healing right and messing up my typical muscles movement). But I am going in for X-rays tomorrow, and hopefully, everything will be okay, and it will just be a bone bruise or something like that. I really don�t want to have to wear a cast again. | |||||||||||
