Buckled and Fractured

On the last day of November, Pierce was jumping around the living room and jumped on Paul, who was laying on the floor, and jumped back off again.  When he landed, his large toe on his left foot was tucked under.  He cried for a while over it, and was given some ibuprofin before bed.  The next day he said it still hurt, and he didn't want to wear a regular shoe over it.  We allowed him to wear sandals (and sent tennis shoes in his backpack since technically they aren't supposed to wear sandals to school).  We assumed it was a bad sprain.  There was no bruising, and just a mild puffiness.  Over the next few days, Pierce continued to complain now and then that his toe hurt, but it didn't seem to slow him down as he still jumped and ran about the house like the active kid that he is.

But finally it was 9 days later and he was still saying off and on that it hurt.  So I decided to make a doctor appointment for him after school the next day.  We went to the pediatrician and he thought since it had been a while he would send him on to an orthopedic doctor for an x-ray.  So I spent three hours that day in and out of doctors offices with all 3 boys in tow - it made for a very long afternoon!  The x-ray was inconclusive, but the 3 orthopedic doctors who looked at it thought that he may have had a fracture in a growth plate, which wouldn't be visible until it started to heal, 14 days post injury.  Since it was only 10 days post injury, we wouldn't know for sure for a few more days.  So they gave Pierce some bandages and a boot to wear (even when sleeping) and made an appointment 10 days later.

After a few days in the boot, Pierce said his toe had stopped hurting.  He was hopeful they would proclaim him healed when he returned.  But when they took the x-ray, they could see the healing and told us that Pierce had a buckle or torus fracture.  Very common in children due to their softer bones, it's where the bone buckles on one side, but doesn't disrupt the other side.  So Pierce is stuck wearing his boot for another 3 weeks.  Hopefully once we return he will be able to return to regular shoes again!  I knew a broken bone was bound to happen at some point or another with 3 boys.  I'm glad he's at least feeling better!

How about you, readers?  Any broken bones in your childhood?