Cast Away!
Would you believe Alex broke his arm again? It's six weeks later, and he just traded in his awkwardly angled cast for a spiffy new brace, the kind that bowlers wear. I will not be taking Alex bowling any time soon, of course, for fear of resnapping his arm bones. "That's the biggest complication we see with these type of breaks," Alex's doctor has said many times. "It takes a year for the bones to fully strengthen and straighten. Rebreaking is a major concern." His doctor relayed the same story twice, giving me the uneasy impression that he's only had one other patient besides Alex. Another young boy broke both his radius and ulna at the playground, same as Alex. Six weeks after the cast coming off, he got smacked in the arm with a flying soccer ball. Bam! Forearm broken again! Sucks to be that guy. What fun! An ambulance ride. Everybody knows how Alex broke his arm. Every stranger and semi-stranger who ...