April 20, 2008, Napa CADale and I decided to go up to the North Bay BMX track in Napa for the last day of the Redline Cup Qualifiers. Dale was out on the track practicing just before the main event was suppose to start. As you exit the first turn onto the back stretch, you immediately hit a large jump. Dale got a good jump coming out of the gate and was about to turn in one of the patented fast laps when he endoed coming over the top of the hill.
He had some trouble getting up so they checked him out and sent him back tot he bleachers. He was obviously rattled and complaining of his wrist hurting and several cuts and bruises. I tried to talk him through it but he was having nothing to do with that. He finally told me he wanted to go home. I tried to talk him out of that but soon realized that the kid has experience with crashing and getting back on his bike and if he can't do it now, this one must really hurt. So we packed up, loaded his bike back on the car, withdrew him from the event (too bad you don't get your money back!) and left to come home. On the way home, I had a brilliant idea - we should stop and get a treat to help him get his mind off his injuries. I asked him if he wanted a piece of pie to help cheer him up. He said "you bet! I'm having a pie emergency!" so we found a diner and stopped. When we got inside, Dale told the waitress that he had just wrecked his bike and was having a pie emergency. She said she didn't know exactly what a pie emergency was but she knew how to cure it. She then asked Dad if it was ok to go straight to the pie and by-pass lunch. I told her that's what we came in here for - let's get to it! They had just what we needed , Dalezilla got a piece of Chocolate Cream Pie and I got some Lemon Marangue. It was delicious.
As Dale was cleaning up the last few crumbs from his plate he told me that his arm was still sore and that he thought he might need a second piece of pie. At this point I'm beginning to think that I'm being played for a sucker by a 7 year old kid. But, in the end, Dale ended up with a piece of apple pie and ice cream - which he proceeded to devour. We got back in the car and drove home. He was trying to play with his Nintendo DS but was having trouble - this is when you know things are bad. 2 days later (tonight), things haven't gotten any better. He is still complaining, he has a knot on arm but no other swelling or bruising. I decided it was time to take him to urgent care to get it checked out so off we went. The doctor examined him and ordered some routine x-rays. The technician checked them out and said it looked like a bad ouwie! When the doctor took a look he said it was broken - but only the way a 7 year old can break and arm. Instead of a fracture, you could see where the bone had bent and was slightly out of alignment. There was a bulge in the bone right where the deviation occurred. It is much the same effect if you bend a live twig, it bends instead of breaking and where it bends the twig folds and bulges. Hence the term 'green-stick fracture'. The nurse put a splint and sling on his arm and sent him home. We will go to see an orthopedic sports doctor over the next 2-3 days where Dale will get his permanent cast. I'll post more then and hopefully I'll get some pictures out of this I can post too. Dale is really excited about getting a real cast so all of his friends can sign it.
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