Anyone have experience with a child with a fractured wrist?

[shanvan]

Ds fell off and fractured his wrist at his riding lesson today. It's his right wrist. Seems he's going to have issues writing. I have to take him for a permanant cast tomorrow, so I'll be able to talk to the doctor then. I'm just wondering if anyone has dealt with this and how much writing you expected your Dc to attempt.

[iamrachelle]

My DD fractured her wrist last spring... I expected NO writing until she could do so without pain and then made allowances for neatness after she could. The padding wore down inside her cast after a couple of weeks and she ended up with a blister on her thumb (which was also casted) because of trying to write with her cast on. It ended up infected, they had to change her cast AND she had to start on antibiotics. If I had it all to do over again I would have forbidden her from writing at all. I'm not sure if her writing had anything to do with it, but what should have been a simple six weeks in a cast turned into a looooong nine weeks by the time it was all said and done.

 

:grouphug: to you and your DS... praying for a fast and painless healing for him.

[TechWife]

DS did this last spring. His arm & thumb were in a cast. I expected him to do nothing at all until he got his cast on. We spent two days watching various documentaries on Netflix w/his arm elevated. Once he got his cast on he could type, so he did as much there as possible. He did his math on the white board, the marker slid around much easier than a pencil on paper. He wore his cast for 11 weeks total - 7 weeks w/arm and thumb in cast to start, then an additional 4 weeks in a second cast w/his thumb free. Once his thumb was free, he didn't have any problems using a pen/pencil & everything went back to normal. After the cast was off, he spent four weeks in a removable brace, so that wasn't a problem either.

[Lady Florida.]

My ds fractured his scaphoid last year around this time. He had a splint rather than a cast, and had instructions to use his wrist as little as possible or it wouldn't heal properly. The ortho doc said it was extremely important for it to heal properly or he would likely have trouble with it all of his life. I didn't expect any writing or typing. If I really wanted his assignment written rather than oral, I had him dictate to me while I typed.

[WiseOwlKnits]

DS fractured his wrist this last summer and he was discouraged from using it for coloring or writing for the month while it was on. They said the movement of writing even in a cast will cause muscle and joint movement that's not beneficial to healing. DS became really good at coloring and writing with his left hand. As soon as the cast was off, he immediately went back to using his right hand.

[SilverMoon]

I fractured my wrist as a kid. I couldn't use that hand to write anything once the cast was on. By the end of it I could write fairly well with my left hand, and I was great and hunt and peck typing. I'd expect to be his scribe, accept messy left hand attempts, and/or do more orally.

[gaillardia]

One ds fractured both wrists at the same time this past spring.

I didn't let him do anything. One arm was in a cast, one in a splint.

We worked with him, but I didn't want him to have any extra problems with his healing. He read a lot.

[momtotkbb]

DD fractured her's a couple years ago. The orthopeds instructions were to limit the use of it if we wanted it to heal properly. She primarily did everything orally or typed w/ one hand. She had Alg I that year so our accountability group rec'd that she tell me how to solve them on the white-board and then for me to pick a couple problems each lesson and write them in her notebook for her. Like someone else said - she read a lot. Oh, when it happened we still had standardized testing to do --so I had the joy of filling in the bubbles for her.

[shanvan]

Thank you to all who gave advice. Strangely enough, the orthopedist said Ds should be able to write since his fingers are free in the cast. After all I read I'm still going to play it safe and not have him writing until after his next check up at least.

 

Of course Ds is fine with not writing, but bummed about not being able to ride.