Ace's Sprain

Okie, this mummy made a mistake. Sorry, Ace!

This little boy really sprained his wrist somewhat... His teacher called me at around 3 plus in the afternoon on Monday and said that Ace kept holding on to his hand and when they pressed it and asked him if it was painful for him, he said no. But if they tried to turn it round and round, he would give and expression of pain even though he does not cry or he would call out, "pain, pain, pain..."

His teacher says that children don't lie about such things. Perhaps because I havent been the most honest child on earth, I guess I projected my lack of integrity on my son and thought that he had been faking it.. even at 3.5 years old.

But well, what has happened, has happened. I forgive Ace and I forgive myself.

Anyway, Max brought him home early and we couldn't really decide what to do to him. Sometimes when you twirl his wrist, he says it is painful. Sometimes he says it isn't. And the whole arm was a little tender and swollen. But other than that, he was laughing and happy all the way. Just that he kept using his good hand to hold the wrist of his injured hand.

If we brought him to a Chinese Sinseh, i was afraid they might pull too hard and cause him more pain and I have heard of them giving the wrong diagnosis and thus the wrong treatment before.. if we bring him to a doctor, I am also afraid of the same thing would happen.. So since Daddy used to be from St Johns and is more experienced when it comes to injuries, I decided to listen to him.

Our verdict- do nothing. From his symptoms and from the way it happened, my guess is that it is a mild sprain. So first day sure will be very painful one. Second day will be ok already. Daddy says even if we brought him to the doctor the doctor would very probably give some painkiller.. they wouldn't be able to do anything.

That's what they said on the internet as well. I emailed a fellow parent from the US who mentioned in her blog that her son has the same injury and asked her for advice and she very promptly replied. Very grateful to her.... She said to bring him to a doctor if he doesn't get better after observation... cos usually the doctor will just give some medication and charge you money. There is nothing they can do.

So leh, we let Ace watched TV and while he is engrossed in the TV, we would massage his hand (Daddy says the way to let him get well is to massage his hand) and I noticed that everytime he is watching TV, he doesn't complain so much of pain. Once his attention is not there anymore, any small action we do to his hand, he shouts "Pain, pain, pain!" and cries.

I guess it is probably really slightly painful. But in this case, the psychological factor I feel, outweighs the physiological factor. His pain does not seem to be consistent and I noticed that whenever he lies down for a while and suddenly sits up, I think due to the rush of the flow of blood, he will feel pain and cry abit.

Anyway, we sort of cheered him up with a Panda Biscuit, fed him some dinner and played with him for a while (He even wanted to play LEGO with one hand) and then we put him to sleep. I also put my hand on his wrist and told him I am sending him love.

Given that it was a special circumstance, we decided to let him sleep on the Kiko Bed. But just so that he would not try to break his hand just to sleep in our bed, we told him to sleep in our bed because our bed gives out Far Infrared and Negative ions.. helps to rejuevenate cells and heal them faster I feel.. but I also told him it is a special treat because Daddy wants to go and watch soccer tonight.

Before he slept, I fed him one N-ma (which has lots of Astaxanthin that helps improve muscle strength and helped me prevent muscle ache after strenuous exercise during Women's Day Out).

Nainai and Popo kept calling to ask how he was but he was not in a good mood and did not want to talk to them.

Alas, while he was asleep, he kept holding on to his injured wrist.

Every now and then, he would call out in his sleep, "Mummy, mummy...." only to quieten down after a while when I snuggle closer to him to let him feel my presence. After about an hour, I realized that somehow, his pee, for some unknown reason, squirted out from his diapers onto his top.

Headache ah! The pee was wet and smelly but how to change him out of his clothes without him making any noise.. he virtually refused to move his hand at all and plus, he was already sleeping!

Boh pian lor.. use force lor... luckily the shirt was a big one and so it was easy to take out one arm and the head before sliding the shirt down the injured arm. When I did that, Ace started crying. He was crying real loud with tears in his eyes. So I had another problem... how do I help him put on a shirt?

In the end, I took out the only comfy shirt with buttons down the front row that he has.. the one that his school used for his Kukabara dance and tried to put it on for him. Even though he din have to move his hands much when I put it on, he still cried and cried.

After I manage to get him to sleep, about 5 min later, "Mummy, mummy.." He was pulling at his pants. Seems that that was wet as well and so I had to change for him again.

After a few more times of whining and call ing out for me, he finally settled in and started sleeping.

The next morning, he woke up pressing on his wrist and kept giving me an M-shaped mouth expression. After some discussion, we decided to keep him at home for one day to recuperate.

The whole morning, he was holding on to his wrist and giving me a very pitiful look. All of a sudden at 11 plus in the morning while we were watching TV together, he jumped up from we were sitting and told me, "Mama. 我的手好了!"

Previously, he would let his hand lie straight and let it hang loose like it really had no use like that. It seemed as if he his hand is totally useless and he acts like that hand is 残废. Rather, he sorts of behaves like the single armed swordsman.

So when he walks, he wobbles because that hand is perpetually straight and hanging and cannot help him balance at all.

After he declared that his hand has recovered, it is at least not hanging loose and straight by the side but swinging along to help him gain balance. And when he is playing, sometimes when he forgets, he will even use the injured hand a little bit but always with the good hand supporting it. He even attempted to play badminton with me!

Anyway, his teachers were so nice, they even called to ask after him in the afternoon.

By night time, his hand was quite ok. We can twirl it anyway we like without pain and he only feels pain if we flex his palm 90 degrees to his arm either up or down and there was still a slight swelling and Daddy says it is because he did not use that arm much and that is why there is alot of fluid retained there.

I told Ace to look at his arms and asked him if he noticed the swelling. I told him it was swelling because he is not using his hand. So he wouldn't be able to recover quickly if that is the case. Then I reminded him that if he recovered, he can go swimming and do other fun things like going to the playground to play. Also, if he does not recover by tommorrow morning, daddy will have to bring him to a doctor and they might give him an injection.

So he started to complain less when we asked him to use his injured arm and is alot happier to let us massage it. Daddy was very goood help in this aspect as he keeps taking effort to entertain Ace and make him happy so that he can massage his hand. On my hand, I tried to play games with him to encourage him to use two hands.. I also use milk to entice him by telling him I will give him his milk if he holds with two hands.

I also put my hand in his wrist to send alot of love to him. I think it does make him feel better because every now and then, he asks me to send love to his wrist. Even before he sleeps, he wants me to hold his wrist and send love to him. So I fell asleep in his room sending love to him..

Anyway, I am pleased to announce that as of this morning, Ace can now lift his arms and put on or take off t-shirts without any pain, he can use his injured hand to shake hands with me and daddy (even though he insists on using the other hand to support it cos he acts like that hand cannot bend at the arm and be lifted up without help) and the ultimate test came when he brushed his teeth by himself with BOTH HANDS! Initially it looked like it took alot of effort to lift his injured arm up and it looked like his hand was in some awkward position but after a while, he too, realized that it was not painful and he started to use that hand to brush his teeth properly. I was soooooo happy!

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