First cast

A couple of weeks ago, Karina fell off the swing in our backyard.  As she landed, the put her right arm out behind her and hurt it.

After noticing that Karina wasn't willing to bend her arm after a certain point, we took her in to the doctor, who thought it was just a sprain but got an x-ray done anyways.  When it came back, they told us there was a fracture.  So this is the first broken bone in our family!

We are lucky that Portland has Shriner's hospital, which specializes in orthopedics for kids.  Here she is getting examined there.

And here she is with her new cast!  Pink of course.  We were told that she would need to have it on for 4-6 weeks.

The kids signed it.

She is bummed that she can't ride her bike, or do other things like knitting, drawing, or crocheting.  On the flip side, she can no longer do much of her schoolwork, practice the piano, or violin, or do some chores like washing dishes.  So at least she go out of that!


After a week, we took her in for a follow-up visit, to make sure the bone was healing ok.  She got another x-ray done.

Because the swelling in her arm had gone down, her arm was wiggling in there now.  They decided to remove the old one and put a new one on, that fit more snuggly.

Here is the new one, with a stripe!

Karina has learned to be more ambidextrous.  She can write (slowly) with her left hand now.

And does other stuff, like brush her teeth and eat meals, with her left hand too.  

Get well soon, Karina!