ds will be cruiseing with a broken wrist....

[scorpiomum]

i posted a few weeks ago worried that there wouldnt be many kids on our cruise in the med on 23 Nov so thanks to all who replied. now we have another small problem. DS who is 8 has broken his wrist. he was on the trampoline and didnt do anything out of the ordinary but fell awkward and broke both his wrist bones in his left wrist. thank god he is right handed. he was amazingly brave. had to stay in hospital overnight and they set his wrist the next day. so 10 days later we went back for x rays to make sure everything was ok. its not. his bone has moved so have to go back to hospital in 2 days to have it reset...under general anesthetic cause he is young...we fly in just over 2 weeks....typical.

 

i know we wouldnt have really been doing much swimming in the med in Nov. but it just makes everything that bit harder. even trying to get clothes over his huge cast (from fingers to shoulder) is a problem. so just wondered has anyone else had to travel with kids (or adults for that matter) in a cast? wondered if we would have problems with swelling on plane? also in the kids club, will there be enough for him to do with 1 arm? he can play some video games and computer etc and hopefully by then he wont have to be so careful with it. have to say we are so unlucky...i kept him off school for the week, he did everything right, didnt run around, kept his sling on and bones still moved....AHHHH.

 

i am sure we will still have a great time...just hoping someone else might have had a similar experience...

[sandrac213]

Scorpiomum,

 

I can feel your pain.......ummm no pun intended, My DH was cutting a tree down 2 weeks ago and the top snapped off and thank you lord, he put his arm up over his head because it broke his arm instead of his neck. He is also in a full arm cast (only it is his right arm and he is right handed). Have been trying to get him fitted for a jacket and dress shirts etc over that darn thing (not easy). He goes for his second visit on monday and hopefully he will only be in the cast for another 3 weeks which will mean he will get it off maybe 4-5 days before we cruise, if it has moved, we will be in the same situation where they will probably have to re-set it or possibly pin it. (It's not like he's a kid anymore at 53, his bones aren't going to heal as well as your sons). But I hope your son is feeling better soon and I'm sure he will have a blast (even with an arm in a cast). Take care and best wishes.

 

Sandy

[SweetAngel]

I broke my left wrist last November (on my birthday) just 3 weeks before our December cruise. I am right handed, too, luckily, but it was much harder than I imagined to try to live with only that right hand. For me, a single mom, it was extremely difficult to cook and feed my kids at home and to drive them to school.

 

But once on the cruise, it was hardly a problem at all. When I think back about that wonderful week, I hardly even remember the broken wrist. Then I go through the pictures, see the ugly brace, and think, "Oh yeah, my wrist was broken." Trying to negotiate luggage for the three of us on and off the ship was about the hardest thing of the whole cruise. The cruise staff pampers you so well that it is pretty easy to get along.

 

I was lucky that I got to have a brace instead of a cast (since I ended up being allergic to the cast), so I was able to swim and snorkel. For me, it would have been just awful not to get to go through the underground rivers of Mexico. You can ask your doctor about waterproof cast options.

 

I'm sure the counselors in the kids' club will help your son. Sure there will be some things that are difficult for him and some things that he just won't be able to do, but he is going to have a great time, regardless ... especially with a loving, helpful family.

[scorpiomum]

Thanks SweetAngel and sandrac213. in the big scheme of things we are lucky...we keep saying if this is the worst that will happen to you we will take it. but finding out his bone has moved despite being over-cautious was a big disappointment. i really hope that he is spoilt by the staff on the cruise as at least then he wont feel like he is missing out on anything. and it could be worse...it might have happened a week before the cruise or even on the cruise! at least this way we are used to it and he is not in pain anymore. thankfully we had booked a GS with a foldaway bed so he can have the fold out sofa to himself (his brother the foldaway)...we almost went for a room with a pullman and i really wouldnt have wanted him climbing up and down with only 1 arm...so in that respect we are going to be fine.

[celtic_beauty]

Boy can I relate to this!! My daughter fell off the swing set last May and broke both of her wrists, one had both bones and the other was just one bone but she has both of her arms in casts. One was a medium one that went to almost her elbow, the other one went almost to her shoulder, they left the other one smaller so she could feed herself and get dressed...boy what a pain that was! She didnt swim or get near the water etc.

 

 

( sorry if the pic is too big )

 

4 months later she was running around outside and I told her to becareful before she broke something right before vacation...well she hit her foot and broke her foot so she had a cast almost up to her knee.

 

 

 

I went to a medical supply store and bought a bag type thing that you put over so people could take a shower, well her grandmother took her to a pool with a rough bottom and she got a hole in it, didnt realize she filled the bag up with water so we had to sit for hours trying to dry it out with a blowdryer halfway across the country from home....Not a good thing but she still had a blast!

You have nothing to worry about...after all it could be much worse :D One broken wrist is nothing to deal with ;) Just keep him safe until after vacation!! LOL :D

[Karysa]

Sorry to hear about your son's injury. The best advice that I can give is for you to ask his doctor if he could have a water cast. It is basically a regular fiberglass cast (the colorful one's) and there is a layer of gortex that is wrapped around his arm and then the cast is put on as normal.

My daughter had a very nasty bike accident that resulted in the brake of the mountain bike being imbedded nearly 3 inches into her thigh. The firefighters had to cut the bike off her and well anyways she suffered a broken wrist as well. The stitches on her thigh came out 10 days or so after the accident and we were told that if her x-ray on her arm at her 2 week follow-up comes back ok they will take the cast off and switch it to a water cast. Sometimes for a small fracture they will put the watercast on right away but my daughter had to have her arm set as well so they just wanted to put a plaster of paris cast on for a couple of weeks to ensure that it was healing ok. She went swimming a couple of hours after the cast was on and we had a resort vacation and we couldn't keep her out of the water and boats it really did make things easier. Some hospitals here may charge $60.00 or so for it but it is worth it.

I hope this helps.

Karysa

[scorpiomum]

celtic_beauty- oh no not two wrists!! oh your poor DD and you. i know we are actually really lucky. just a little stressed having to go back into hospital and have a general to have it manipulated again. i dont understand why the bones moved when we were soooo careful. but i know that i just have to be patient and it will be sorted out.

 

Karysa - your daughters accident must have been very scary for your family, i hope she is ok now. i live in ireland and things are pretty basic here but i will ask about the waterproof cast when we are back in the hospital on monday. fingers crossed he wont need pins! but at least its a med cruise so not like we would have been snorkelling or swimming at the beach anyway. and i think after the stress of the last 2 weeks we will all enjoy the holiday.

 

thanks again for your stories...it really helped to hear them. i know i really dont have anything to worry about. its just nice though to hear what other people did in similar circumstances.

[celtic_beauty]

Karysa, I am so sorry to hear about your daughter! I would of freaked out!!

 

Anyways, I dont know if the water proof ones are just certain areas or just certain people know about them because we asked for them when my daughter had both her wrists in casts because we were going on vacation and they said there was no such thing( the ER doc told us to ask about them)...but I did look online and they do have them and we also seen another little girl with one on at a water park so I know they do have them...hopefully you wont run into someone who has no clue like we did. It would of been nice to get waterproof casts :(

[Karysa]

Karysa, I am so sorry to hear about your daughter! I would of freaked out!!

 

Anyways, I dont know if the water proof ones are just certain areas or just certain people know about them because we asked for them when my daughter had both her wrists in casts because we were going on vacation and they said there was no such thing( the ER doc told us to ask about them)...but I did look online and they do have them and we also seen another little girl with one on at a water park so I know they do have them...hopefully you wont run into someone who has no clue like we did. It would of been nice to get waterproof casts :(

 

Too bad they couldn't have used water casts for your poor daughter. She must have been miserable on vacation.

 

I had that fake calm when my daughter had her bike accident. I didn't want to freak her or her sisters out.

Water casts sure do make everyone's life easier and I think that they should offer them when it is deemed medically ok. We are trying to keep our youth fit so maybe we as parents can use that plan of approach when they turn down the option of a water cast strictly due to cost. Can't play basketball, can't play baseball but they can swim and play beach ball water volley ball because if they fall they won't hurt themselves. Worth a try I'd say!

Karysa