Sticks and Stones....and Retractable Awnings??

Owen broke his arm on Wednesday when he got it stuck in the bar of a retractable awning while it was retracting.

Wait....WHAT??

I'm guessing your reaction was something along those lines. It's what I've gotten in response each time I've told the story so far, and what I have said to myself hundreds of times already as I've replayed the incident over and over in my head. Yes, Owen broke his arm, and yes, it was from a retractable awning. To make a long story short - I had a guy over to give me an estimate on a retractable awning, and he had a demo model that Owen was curious about and stuck his hand in as the motor was going to retract it...thus taking his arm with it and fracturing his humerus bone at the elbow. It's going to be fine after 3-4 weeks in a cast.

To make a long story long...here goes...

I have never in my life been interested in or cared about retractable awnings (if you don't know what a retractable awning is, it's something that gets installed on the outer wall of your house - most likely above your patio/deck - that has heavy-duty fabric that you can open or close/retract whenever you want shade or sun - kind of like a patio umbrella, but more substantial). A couple of weeks ago we got a mailer that included a coupon from this company for 150$ off of a retractable awning. For whatever reason I found that interesting. You have to understand that our backyard gets blasted with direct 100% full on sun until around 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and in the summer it is pretty much unbearable to go out there and play. It has always kind of bugged me that we can't use that space for so much of the day, but even more so now that Owen is getting older and is loving being outside. So, I called the company (bad decision #1) just to get a ballpark figure to see if these things were even within our price range - knowing that we really didn't need it and shouldn't get it anyway this year with the way our budget is currently. But that didn't stop me from calling....and of course they didn't want to give me any numbers over the phone and insisted on sending someone out for a 'no-obligation estimate'. I said, fine, whatever, send the guy out, we'll be here anyway and it will only take a few minutes (bad decision #2).

So on Wednesday, the awning guy came over and brought in this 'demo' awning. It was this thing that he put on my kitchen floor, plugged in, and then used a remote control to open and close it to demonstrate how the awning would work. Imagine a roll of fabric (around a metal bar) sitting on your floor and unrolling to go straight up, and then rolling back in when you push the button to make it retract. Owen was fussy and not wanting to put up with this guy in our house. It was close to lunch time and he was hungry. I was trying to keep Owen happy so that this guy could do his Spiel and get on his way, but nothing was working. The guy (he was a nice man - 3 grown kids of his own, very friendly, etc etc etc) showed Owen the remote control and let him hold it so he could push the buttons and make the awning go up and down on his own. Owen of course loved that concept and was immediately pacified/entertained. I was happy about that, so I allowed it to happen (bad decision #3...worst decision yet). Owen was literally sitting 2 feet from me. I did not ever leave him or even turn my back. I had a direct line of sight the whole time. It took all of 2 seconds for Owen to decide he was curious to see how the thing worked and to reach his hand in to where the fabric was rolling up. I yelled for him to stop and tried to grab him but it was too late, his hand got caught and the motor kept going. Man (or little boy) vs. machine and the machine won.

The incident was over in I don't know how many seconds, but it felt like a lifetime, and I knew instantly that something was not right. Luckily Ben pulled up about 2-5 minutes after it happened (he was coming home for lunch - thank goodness), and we made our way to the ER (the awning guy tried to help but thankfully high-tailed it out of there when Ben got home). We tried to go the back way to the ER only to get 3/4 of the way there to find the road closed, so we had to turn around and go a completely different way. I had Owen in my arms in the front seat. We made it to the ER and had the x-rays (another terrible experience!) and had it confirmed that his arm is fractured, but were comforted by the fact that it could have been SO much worse. It's a non-displaced fracture (meaning the bones are not out of place or anything, just cracked - Rick, I hope I explained that correctly if you are reading this!) and it should heal perfectly fine on it's own (in a cast).

Today, even though it's only been 2 days since it happened, you wouldn't know anything was wrong with Owen, except for the fact that he is wearing an arm splint and is in a sling. He is perfectly happy and pain-free. He's starting to get frustrated realizing that he can't use his arm the way he wants to. We told him that we can't take the splint off until the doctor tells us to, so he keeps asking to talk to the doctor so he can tell him he wants it off. :( He's such a tough, strong little guy. We go back next week for a real cast, and I'm told that will be on for 3-4 weeks. So...we have an interesting month ahead of us! I'm trying to get over feeling sad that I can't take my guy swimming for a while - no more going down the froggy slide or playing in the hose with Daddy and Simon - or that he can't run around and jump with his buddies (at least until his cast is on). Now I just need to come up with other good ideas to keep him happy and entertained. We'll see how it goes...

So...we're recovering (I say 'we' intentionally....now I truly understand how it can hurt the Mommy so much more...) and moving on. Sorry this is so long, but I'm getting tired of telling the story and reliving it over and over, so I'm hoping this is one of the last times. Anyone interested in signing Owen's cast, give me a call and come on over! I'll get some pictures posted in a few more days. He's pathetically cute in his little sling!