socks and slides don't mix

I'll never forget the eerie sound of our eldest son's scream that anxious day.

Following his baseball game, our son had invited his friend over to hang out for the afternoon.  For whatever reason, this friend declined, but his older brother was interested in spending the time at our house.  This turn of events may be the catapulting factor for the remainder of this story.

Excited to have a friend over - an older friend at that - Jacob began to put on his best.

Our house at the time had a huge basement.  We had turned half into a play area complete with a slide, foam mat flooring, a train table, and a kitchen play set zone.

The other portion was compartmentalized into an office, 2 school areas, our laundry room, a craft nook, as well as a workbench area.

Techno-genius had work to do in the office and I was getting the younger kids settled down to naps and quiet activities upstairs following the busy baseball morning.

I was in the living room when I heard it. A loud shriek coming from our oldest child in the basement playroom.  It was an uncanny sound. But, no crying or yelling followed.  I quickly dismissed it as a 'fluke'.

Moments later Jacob appeared with his friend,who, with face flushed, stated, "I think he dislocated his wrist or something."

Approaching, holding his right wrist with his left hand, eyes bulging he presented his arm to me. Expecting dislocation, I sympathetically looked at his arm.

What happened next was not my finest 'mommy moment'.

Looking at his arm, my heart moved into my throat.  My head swam, my stomach turned.  "Oh my!" I blurted as I turned and walked to the other side of the room, hands covering my distraught face.

THAT WAS NOT A DISLOCATION!!!  

The arm, just above the wrist, made a complete S curve.  I could see the bulging of the bone as it pressed against his skin.  "As close to a compound fracture as you can get without the bone literally protruding out of the skin," the doctor would later quip.

Fortunately, Techo-genius was much better with this scenario than I was.  He remained calm and quickly ushered Jacob to the car and on to the hospital; where I'd soon meet them after delivering the friend to his parents and finding care for our other 2 children.

HOW had this happened?

When an 8 year old boy wants to show off for his slightly older friend, he'll do silly things.

What sort of silly things you ask?  Things like climbing up the slide in our basement, in his stocking feet, and proceeding to JUMP off said slide. Resulting, as one could imagine, in a loss in footing, a fall to the ground, slipping on the foam matting, and catching his full weight on his right arm - snapping the bones clean through.

Re-setting of the bones, casting, surgery to place pins, more casting, and a long recovery have cured our son of showing off on slides in socks.  I think he learned - they just. don't. mix.