Close to 13 years of parenting, a ton of sports, multiple ski trips – it’s actually miraculous that this is the first time any of the kids has fractured anything. Last night A was doing some (very routine for her) gymnastics around the house (AS ONE DOES), twisted wrong, and immediately could not move her finger. She didn’t have that much swelling but the pain was significant and she really couldn’t move it, so Josh took her to the ED where she got an X ray and as it turns out, she has a fracture.
3 days before we were supposed to fly to Las Vegas for her first ever gymnastics meet, too!
Not going to lie, she was disappointed and I was disappointed! I was so looking forward to the 1:1 time and seeing her compete after she’s worked hard for months. I was also excited about a fun and adventurous weekend. Amazing how plans/anticipation can be crushed in an instant, but after a very brief period of wallowing (C played some moodier twenty one pilots songs for me while I sulked for a bit — he was very sweet) I feel okay and honestly? WE WERE DUE. Who escapes parenthood with no fractures!? Probably not most people.
Fun fact: I have sustained exactly one fracture –> my left thumb, which I injured doing gymnastics in the house. I was 15 and not 12, and my biggest concern was having some violin performance coming up (you need your left thumb for that) — but still, almost a little bit eerie, no? Let’s hope the other kids DO NOT follow in Josh’s footsteps since he has broken his leg a) playing soccer and b) skiing, two activities that are common around here.
We will see peds ortho today for casting, so I have to move my very first semi private strength training session, which actually feels laughable. REALLY? Missing THE FIRST ONE, in January!?!? But I told them about the fracture and they were super understanding. And in the grand scheme of things, it obviously doesn’t matter (and I can even lift at home today to keep up with my 2x/week goal).
Today we will also find out how long she will likely be out from meets. She is taking it all REALLY well so far (and I told her she’s allowed to be mad/wallow/grieve a little!). I know this will be a blip looking back and she will recover and be back, maybe even in time for some meets later in the spring.
2025 – are you trying to tell me something? Maybe trying to teach me some lessons early on. But we will all recover from this! Onward . . .
19 Comments
Sorry about A’s injury. Fractures are the worst. My daughter broke her clavicle the last weekend before the holiday break skiing with dad. Terrible day that was. Everyone says it’s so hard to get a fracture with kids because their bones are “softer” than ours but I call BS. My daughter is 5 and we’ve had two fractures. It happens. They have activities and hobbies that can sometimes lead to injuries. Wishing A, a speedy recovery so she can get back to it in no time. One thing I learned during our ordeal is that they do heal quite fast compared to adults so there’s that! 2 more weeks until we’re out of the sling. Thoughts and prayers friend!
(Technical glitch….when I read on my.ohone there is no way I can see to respond to your actual post, just a comment…) How disappointing!! Could you still travel to.suppprt her teammates / watch, if not participate? FWIW, my only broken bone was also a finger, childhood on monkey bars. And LG broke a finger at 13/14 also doing gymnastics….which was the end of that activity. (Not the only reason) I hope you and A can do something special even if travel isn’t in the cards.
We are canceling this trip but will def cheer her teammates on at the next meet (not everyone was going to this one anyway!). And yes to something else fun this weekend. Trying to figure out what!
I freaking love that you also have kids with insane travel for their sports– YOU GET IT.
That sucks– when Coop broke his toes, the recovery was actually super quick– I hope she heals fast!
Insane sports travel is right. Traveling to Las Vegas from Florida for a first novice gymnastics meet is totally unnecessary and makes no sense at all.
welp – it was more of a team bonding trip I think. I think it would have been a lot of fun for her and was not required to continue the activity. But we are not going, so that’s that!
oh darn, sorry to hear she broke her finger, and weird how it happened the same way as your fracture. We fortunately never had a fracture while my kids were growing up, but here’s good thoughts that it heals quickly!
Oh no! Poor A! And terrible timing with your fun trip on the horizon. I hope she has a speedy recovery. I love that C played some ‘emo’ songs for you so you could lean into those feeling of sadness. And I’ll be dealing with a recovery in that same finger, but mine will be at the knuckle joint. Is A left handed by any chance?? I am preparing to not be able to write for several weeks. My hand writing is bad enough with my dominant hand. It would be completely impossible to read with my left hand!
It’s her right hand and she’s right handed 🙁
Ugh! Glad you can laugh about it a little. I also had a home gymnastics injury as an adolescent. I inured my ankle right before starting middle school doing a cartwheel in my parents’ bedroom. Smacked the ankle on their bedframe. What was I thinking?? I was not a gymnast, just messing around. I had to start middle school on crutches.
Oh no! That really stinks! I feel like all of our injuries have been total freak accidents. The kids are fine doing semi-dangerous stuff and then get hurt in the most random ways. So far only my youngest has broken a bone – his arm falling on the playground at just shy of 2 – but we’ve had a smashed toe, two rounds of facial stitches, two baby teeth knocked out and I broke my nose in a freak swingset accident many years ago (0/10 – do not recommend).
sorry to hear that unexpected news but you are taking it so well. Sofia had a leg fracture when she was 1.5 years old and she was on a cast for 6 weeks, not fun for sure but not that it mattered to much at the time as she was at daycare, no gym meets to go. Now that they have more things they do, anything that happen to them affect their performance/participation, so I can totally relate.
But life is that, up and down, very fragile when we think all is going well. I’m dealing something unexpected too and trying to see the bigger scheme of things and let small annoyances go.
So sorry to hear about A’s fracture; I hope she recovers soon! With youth on her side, she surely will. H had her piano evaluation at Furman University yesterday and jammed her finger in a basketball game two days before- argh. Small potatoes in the grand scheme, but still inconvenient. Glad A isn’t too upset about the sudden change of plans!
Big bummer! Can you still go to cheer on her team and get that 1:1, or do another (closer to home) trip this weekend instead? Hopefully she can still participate in practices for conditioning (albeit modified) so she can continue doing what she loves.
Oh no, what a bummer! From one gymnastics family to another, crossing fingers she heals fast and can catch some competitions later this season!
It’s looking good- she may be clear in 3 weeks! Fingers crossed!!!
Oh, that is SO disappointing! I know how I would feel- I’m SO looking forward to this trip to Tampa, and all it would take is a little fracture like this and we couldn’t go (you need your fingers to play the flute, too!). So- I feel for you. When you think about it, it’s amazing this type of thing doesn’t happen more often, especially considering how active your kids are. Sounds like you all have a good attitude about it, but what a way to start the year! Maybe you got all the bad luck out of the way early.
Oh no. What a bummer. Why does this sort of thing always seem to happen. I mean, I know logically it doesn’t – we do lots of fun events without them being thwarted – but my son fractured his wrist after one swim lesson and one baseball game…and then missed all the rest of them that summer. And this year he fractured his thumb the day before soccer tryouts. Gah.
I’m glad you’ve made it this far without any fractures, and I’m glad to hear A is taking it well. The best laid plans…
Ugh, I am so sorry to read this!