Sky's Arm

Sky has a class skating trip coming up and as he had never before been skating, Anna thought we should pre-empt any difficulty by taking him out on the ice first as a family. True was at a skating party with a friend, so we followed and rented skates.

Anna was still putting hers on when Sky and I got to the edge of the rink. Sky went right out whle I prepared to step onto the ice. Before I could say 'boo,' he was down. He got up cradling his arm and saying that it hurt, it huurt, it really HURT. Then he said, 'Dad, I think I'm going to faint.'

He was back by the edge of the rink by then and I told him to put his head down on the railing and rest a second. He did and then, to my horror, slid down into a clump and flattened out on the ice, unconscious. He lay there stretched out for a few seconds, twitching, his eyes half open, before he came to.

Another guy helped me lift him up and I got him to a bench beside the rink. We eventually went to the emergency room at the American Hospital of Paris where, amazingly for a Sunday, a pediatric orthopedist was on duty. Diagnosis: Type 1 Salter-Harris Growth Plate Fracture. Prognosis: Excellent, provided he stay in a cast for at least three weeks.

So, with that, the doctor wrapped on a cast. Sky was distressed at first.

But he's been very popular at school.

All his friends have signed it.