Soccer Injury-August 25th

Braden was so excited for soccer season to start back up. Unfortunately during the very first practice he fell during a scrimmage and had a fluke accident. I'm sure he's landed on his arm/elbow hundreds of times with no incident. I had dropped him off at practice and was going to run to the store real quick around the corner. When I walked into the store I got a call from his coach telling me to come back because Braden was hurt. One of the parents felt like they needed to go to the fire station next door and get the EMTs. When I pulled up to the field there was an ambulance, fire truck with lights going off on the field. I ran to him and was probably this crazy mom telling the EMTs not to put him in the ambulance and that I would take him to the hospital a few blocks away. Long story short, I met up with Andy and he took Braden to the hospital and I took the girls home. We were hoping that it would just be a dislocation and they could reduce it and splint it and go home. When I got the call from Andy I was shocked to hear that he had a severe level 4 supracondylar fracture above his left elbow. Then he sent me the x-rays. Ouch!! It was bad. Andy had to take Braden up to Primary Children's Hospital for surgery. We were so lucky that Braden was able to have surgery just a few hours after they got here. The doctor said it was one of the worst cases he has seen and thought for sure they would have to cut his arm open to reduce it. Many prayers were answered when the doctor came out to the waiting area to tell Andy that it reduced perfectly without having to cut his arm open. They put 4 pins in and splint it and he would have to go back to have it casted the following week. Braden went back from surgery at 3:30am and was out of surgery at 4:15 and home by 6:30. He has been a champ. Seriously, I was nervous about how he would do those first few days with pain and adjusting to everything and he did great. At his follow up appointment, the bone hadn't healed as well as the doctor would've liked to be able to take out the pins so they casted it with the pins in. Braden was a little disappointed to have to keep the pins in. He says they're uncomfortable because he can feel them coming out of his elbow but he hasn't skipped a beat. I'm proud of Braden's attitude. He has lost out not only on the soccer season but the x-country season as well. He had been to one week of practice and was among the top 5 runners on the team and would've more than likely made state. It was his last year to compete at the middle school but he's already looking forward to next season at the high school. He's looking forward to getting the pins out this Friday and hopefully it has healed enough to not have to be recasted.