Skip to main content

What's up with Owen's arm?

by John
From mama mia in the comments:
"so in my weird need to figure this out, were these pins just placed above and below the bone, thru flesh/muscle tissue, just to keep the bones still while in the cast?"
Yup, that's the basic picture! Owen fractured his humerus right at the joint in what the kids today call a supracondylar fracture. From what I understand, it was a vertical crack right between the points where the humerus meets the radius and ulna. The pins were inserted through his flesh into the bone on either side of the fracture, presumably to keep the bone immobilized and to help the two pieces fuse together again.

Fortunately, that's all in the past now. Owen's cast is off and his right arm is rehabilitating quickly!


Comments

mama mia said…
Thanks for the explanation and medical photo...again, yikes! That was one brave boy :)
Jacqueline said…
Wow, I had no idea all this was going on! I have been neglecting my blog and blog viewing during the month of December! Poor Owen, but great to see him w/o the cast! Tough lil' guy! I have to comment that I LOVE the view of your picture with the mountain top and the palm tree! Jonah says he wants to live in Cali, I agree with him! What a beautiful place to call home! I am also jealous of the hiking u get to do there!!! Love ya'll!
Jackie

Popular posts from this blog

A view from your shut down

The Daily Dish has been posting reader emails reporting on their " view from the shutdown ." If you think this doesn't affect you, or if you know all too well how bad this is, take a look at the growing collection of poignant stories. No one is in this alone except for the nutjobs in the House. I decided to email Andrew with my own view. I plan to send a similar letter to my congressperson. Dear Andrew, I am a professor of astronomy at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA). The CfA houses one of the largest, if not the largest collection of PhD astronomers in the United States, with over 300 professional astronomers and roughly 100 doctoral and predoctoral students on a small campus a few blocks west of Harvard Yard. Under the umbrella of the CfA are about 20 Harvard astronomy professors, and 50 tenure-track Smithsonian researchers. A large fraction of the latter are civil servants currently on furlough and unable to come to work. In total, 147 FTEs

The Long Con

Hiding in Plain Sight ESPN has a series of sports documentaries called 30 For 30. One of my favorites is called Broke  which is about how professional athletes often make tens of millions of dollars in their careers yet retire with nothing. One of the major "leaks" turns out to be con artists, who lure athletes into elaborate real estate schemes or business ventures. This naturally raises the question: In a tightly-knit social structure that is a sports team, how can con artists operate so effectively and extensively? The answer is quite simple: very few people taken in by con artists ever tell anyone what happened. Thus, con artists can operate out in the open with little fear of consequences because they are shielded by the collective silence of their victims. I can empathize with this. I've lost money in two different con schemes. One was when I was in college, and I received a phone call that I had won an all-expenses-paid trip to the Bahamas. All I needed to d

back-talk begins

me: "owen, come here. it's time to get a new diaper" him, sprinting down the hall with no pants on: "forget about it!" he's quoting benny the rabbit, a short-lived sesame street character who happens to be in his favorite "count with me" video. i'm turning my head, trying not to let him see me laugh, because his use and tone with the phrase are so spot-on.