Skiier's Thumb

Funny story: That last day in Whistler, when Owen came in too fast at 7th Heaven and banged his hand on a lift pole and Allen had him wiggle his fingers and then ski several more runs? It turns out Owen's hand wasn't necessarily ok, a fact which became clear to Allen on the first leg of their much delayed flight from Vancouver to Toronto when Owen's hand swelled up horribly (though according to Uncle L, the cabin pressure exacerbates injuries which is why you should always travel with compression sock). Allen, however, decided to withhold that piece of information from me until they landed in DC 24 hours later and I was picking them up from the airport, at which point he mentioned, "You might want to take Owen to Urgent Care."

Two hours and an x-ray later, we were informed that Owen had not broken anything (which meant that  Allen, at least in the strictest sense, had adhered to my parting directive to not "break my baby"). They put Owen in a brace, told him to take some Motrin, and scheduled an appointment for him on Tuesday with orthopedics so they could make sure that his thumb was ok. We did as ordered and he spent Monday trying to play the cello with a brace.

By Tuesday, the swelling had gone down and Owen was feeling fine so we really thought they would just take a quick look and send us on our way. Only they didn't. When they examined Owen's hand, they noticed that they could bend Owens right thumb back further than his left. While Owen attributed this to the Fawcett's hyper-mobility, the orthopedist attributed it to "skiier's thumb" – which means either a torn or sprained thumb ligament – and promptly order a cast for Owen for the next six weeks.

This is a problem. While Owen could play cello, albeit not to his usual standards, with a brace, the cast pretty much immobilizes his wrist which is an issue given has a school recital in March. We furiously scheduled an MRI (the earliest appointment we could get was for a week later in Gaithersburg at 9:30 pm) to see if we can get verification that the ligament isn't torn and then try to negotiate an early release from the cast so that Owen can perform Prelude as scheduled (and maybe also get back to rock-climbing and Zelda).

At least he can still cross his fingers ;-)