BMX Track Claims One Broken Arm

You read it right, but the accident didn't even happen on the track, it happened on the stinkin' play set. Jacob was playing tag with some other boys on Saturday night at Pearland Speedway before the main event when he fell off of the play set and broke his arm. Apparently, he had climbed over the railing and was preparing to drop to the ground from the platform and his foot got stuck and he fell, breaking the fall with his arm and landing ultimately on his head. Some nice bystander carried Jacob about 50 yards to the stands where we were all sitting (Jacob weighs about 75 pounds) and handed over the sobbing youngster. Laura did what any good mother would do and panicked ;-) OK, she didn't panic, but let's just say that I don't get too worked up very easily over a hurt arm. I mean there weren't any protruding bones or anything. We put some ice on it and he proceeded to cry harder. We decided it was time to get out of there so Laura asked me to carry Jacob to the car, but they were calling my name for the main event; I was getting ready to miss my main, and I was in first place for the night (my first first place!) So I had Jacob start walking and instructed him to head straight to the car where I had planned to send my friend Larry to meet him, which is exactly the way it went down. I found Larry on the gate with Ethan and sent him straight to Jacob who had walked less than a minute on his own. Larry said he found him, not crying, but headed for the truck as instructed. As soon as he saw Larry, he started sobbing again. Larry is a motocross rider so he has seen his share of broken bones. Jacob wouldn't let go of his arm long enough for Larry to take a look. By the time, I got back to Jacob, he was still sobbing with Larry trying to check him out. I was probably separated from him for a whopping 3 minutes, but honestly, I did feel a bit guilty and did apologize for splitting on him while he was hurting. I know some of you are thinking, what a bad dad I am, well, its easy to look back and think of how we would do things different in any given situation. In hind site, I would have still raced given that the time was upon us but I should have just had Jacob wait in the stands for that three minutes and I could have came and picked everyone up with the truck. I knew he was going to be ok, and well... I did end up with first place :-) We ended up driving all the way back to our side of town to Cy-Fair hospital, where we were in and out in under 2 hours. Regardless of what you may have heard or experienced at Cy-Fair in the past, let me tell you, these folks have a well-oiled machine over there. They are extremely courteous and extremely efficient. Not sure if/when we will have another emergency visit, but if I have a choice, I will go back to Cy-Fair. The x-ray tech is not allowed to comment on the x-rays, but I knew it was broken when she said "hold on a minute, let me burn you a CD." I said "you just answered my question, thanks :-) Jacob has what they call a buckle fracture of the right radius bone, which is the most common type of fracture in kids. The doctor at the hospital said he would be in a cast for 4-6 weeks, but my research shows more like 3-4 for this type of fracture. He has a temporary cast and will see a pediatric orthopedic doctor this week for his permanent cast. We hope it comes of soon, so we can get back to training for the BMX Grand Nationals in Tulsa, OK on Thanksgiving week. That is the big finale for the whole year and riders will be there from across the nation. This is "the year" for Jacob as he is at the top of his class as an 8 intermediate. He will be expert next year and the level of competition at that level is unbelievable. It becomes very difficult to even qualify for the main event at "The Grands." We expect it to be difficult this year as well and will be extremely happy just to see him qualify. Hopefully we will have the cast off and be riding soon. Here is the pic that says it all. You can see the break at the top of the left bone (radius) near the wrist.