This is Part 3 in a Series of articles documenting our experience with the first broken bone in our family. In Part 1 my son broke his arm, in Part 2 we had the bone reset at the hospital, and this part we will cover pain management and the changes to our daily routines.

Arriving Home

My son arrived home to a hero’s welcome! His siblings had made him “get better soon” cards, my wife made cookies, and my sister swung by with her 5 kids to drop off ice cream for everyone.

Since we were celebrating my son being so brave, he got to pick what we did that night. He wanted to watch “Samurai Jack” reruns (an excellent choice). We set him up on the couch with an endless supply of pillows to support his arm at any angle.

He said he wanted to start out sleeping on the couch and watching a Disney movie. We let him. After thirty minutes, he said he was ready for bed. Again, we set up the bed with a dozen pillows so he could keep his arm at whatever angle felt best.

Pain Management

When we left the hospital, the doctors said the pain would be manageable with just ibuprofen and Tylenol (and they were right). They recommended staggering the doses every three hours. That way by the time the first pain medicine was wearing off, the second one would be at full strength. They also recommended waking him in the middle of night to give him pain medicine to stay ahead of the pain.

We stuck with that recommended pain management routine for the first 36 hours we were home. We alternated Tylenol and ibuprofen every three hours throughout the day. For the first two nights after breaking his arm, we woke him up once in the middle of the night to give him ibuprofen.

By the second day at home, we were able to reduce the dosage on the pain management by about half, but we kept up the cycle of taking medicine every three hours. Then, on the third day, we switched to on-demand pain management, letting my son decide when he wanted pain medicine. (It turned out that he asked for it roughly every six hours.) By day six he had stopped asking for pain medicine and said the aching had stopped.

All in all, the pain was surprisingly manageable. Sticking to a schedule for the first 36-48 hours really seemed to help.

Sleeping with a Broken Arm

The first night after breaking his arm, my son slept through the night with no problems. As mentioned, we woke him up once in the middle of the night to give him ibuprofen and stay ahead of pain management.

We helped him get in bed and gave him tons of pillows so he could prop his arm up at any angle he liked. We ended up purchasing an “arm elevation pillow” on Amazon. (It was one of the best purchases we made during this adventure.) My son used it constantly for weeks.

The doctor had warned us that, sometimes, kids wake up with swollen arms and fingers after getting a cast. He said it probably wasn’t anything to worry about and that we should just elevate the arm above heart level and point the hand up towards the ceiling. This would naturally allow the blood to drain out of the arm and the swelling would go away in 10-15 minutes.

New Routines

We had to make some adjustments to our daily routines. My son wasn’t allowed to get his cast wet because they didn’t want mildew and bacteria growing inside the cast. The doctor had gone further and said my son couldn’t run because he didn’t want violent impacts from jogging hurting his healing bones. And, obviously, wrestling was out of the question.

So, my wife and I had to change our daily routines to accommodate. First of all, we started going on daily walks as a family. Kids are still kids and they need to get out of the house and burn some energy. Second, I offered to play board games and do puzzles multiple times a day as those were activities my son could still do. Third, we allowed more screen time for the first week as it distracted from the pain and made it feel more like a special occasion.

Fourth, we splurged on books my son could read. He is currently reading the Guardians of Ga’hoole series so we bought as many books in the series as we could find. ($4 each on Half Price Books!)

Fifth, we started playing tennis in the mornings at the neighborhood park. Tennis is perfect for only having one arm! My son and I would volley back and forth to each other while my other kids would practice hitting “home runs” over the fence and then run and find all the balls they had hit over and over. It worked out great.

Sixth, as mentioned, we didn’t skimp on pain medicine. For the first week, my son’s aches and pains would come and go. Whenever he asked for it, we gave him pain medicine. Because my son almost never takes medicine, we had no qualms about giving him some whenever he asked.

Seventh, we celebrated how brave, how stoic, and how resilient my son was being every day. Sometimes it was a pat on the back, sometimes it was a special treat after dinner, and sometimes it was a special event like going to see the Mario Movie in the movie theater. And it was always words of praise at bedtime.

Lastly, I want to mention that we bought a reusable cast cover from Walgreens to help with showers and baths. This thing works exactly as intended. (It is so much better than my original creation made with trash bags and rubber bands!) My wife took the cast cover with her everywhere so we could cover my son’s arm whenever it rained. It definitely made life easier.

Looking back at all of it, I am surprised by how smoothly everything went. I think a big part of why is because we didn’t waste energy fighting the fact that things had to change. We went with the flow knowing it would only be a few weeks.

Lesson 03: Embrace the fact that life will be different for a few weeks. Give the medicine, change the routine, pull out the stuff you save for rainy days. It won’t last forever.

In the next article I’ll cover the healing process for the broken bones and our follow up trips to the doctor to check on progress and get new casts.