<p>Bengalmom, I have an idea about what that is like. One of my sons tore a ligament in his right thumb when he was in 5th grade. He still had one thumb though. He could not write, but he also had trouble zipping his pants, fastening his buttons, etc.! He had to wear sweat pants to school because he could handle those, LOL! It was not funny at the time, but we can laugh about it now. He had surgery to repair it, and had to see a hand specialist regularly for quite a few months. Best wishes to your son!</p>
<p>Bengalmom - your poor S! I hope this wonāt cause him too many problems. And I hope he owns lots of sweatpants or athletic pantsā¦lol.</p>
<p>Oh wow, both thumbs at once. Thatās a tough one! Someday heāll laughā¦ but I think youāll be doing a lot of waiting on him for a while. Can he write? type? feed himself?</p>
<p>(Iām picturing D with 2 broken thumbs, unable to text! I think sheād break out in hives and curl up in the fetal position!)</p>
<p>ouch Bengalmom, how will he manage his schoolwork? Tape record his answers? speech recognition sw? Hope he has a speedy recovery!</p>
<p>We had end of term conferences today. D came up from midterm in 3 classes, very happy. One B in APUSH which is obviously her weakest subject. B+ from notoriously hard English teacher, even though all her graded work was in the A/A- range. Rest of grades throughout the Aās giving her A- average and highest honors. Still havenāt heard how she did in All state choir auditions, would be nice if the teacher let them know before Thanksgiving. </p>
<p>She is prepping for the Latin SAT II and I have to get her to crack open the ACT book also, taking both in December.</p>
<p>Bengalmom:</p>
<p>Wow. This reminds me of a story I heard of a woman who both broke arms when falling down after a playful push by her H (I think they are even still married!)</p>
<p>S will need some TLC and hereās hoping the teachers cut him some slack/provide options. Hopefully, he doesnāt have any upcoming ACT/SAT soon, or you may need to check on special accomodations ASAP.</p>
<p>The worst ski accident my DS had was a chipped front tooth. Ironically, he got this (after slowing) by slipping on some ice near a āGO SLOWā sign by sliding into it head first. His usual problem was constantly cold fingers, until we discovered he had a circulatory problem, like his Gma, called Reynauds. This was resolved by special $200 gloves with batteries and wires to each finger tip for warming. Guess we chalked that one up as a āmedical expense.ā</p>
<p>Ouch. My husband once tried to put a vacuum in a flask not designed for it and the whole thing exploded in his hands. Luckily he recovered fairly quickly, but for a couple of days he had two huge white mittens on his hands!</p>
<p>Thanks for the good wishes everyone. Iām really now sure how he is getting dressed ā heās still wearing Leviāsā¦
Eating is pretty tough for him ā couldnāt even cut his pancakes with a fork this morning. Yesterday he had an APUSH assignment which required a lot of writing, so he just typed it. Much faster that way.</p>
<p>FindAPlace ā your Hās accident made me laugh out loud ā sorry. 
Iām glad he wasnāt hurt worse than he was.</p>
<p>I like the sound of those gloves! When I used to ski a lot, and would always get very cold, I would joke with my kids that I needed electric long underwear! :)</p>
<p>FindAPlace - sorry - but your Sās accident struck me as funny as well.</p>
<p>And my D has Reynaudās too - but Iāve never heard about those gloves! D sounded envious when I told her about them - she just suffers with cold hands. Where did you get them?</p>
<p>mathmom - why did your DH do such a thing? Just curious.</p>
<p>BengalMom - glad your S seems to be managing.</p>
<p>LIMOMOF2:</p>
<p>Itās okay, even now (some four years later) my S can laugh about such a weird accident. Now he just has a sore mouth from, you guessed it, braces.</p>
<p>We ordered the gloves on line. We tried to find some in a brick and mortar store, so we could test them out, but could not find them (the LA area, although large, probably is not the best place to be looking.) We decided to bite and get them on line, as long as there was a return guarantee.</p>
<p>Thanks FindAPlace. Maybe Iāll look into getting D a pair of those gloves - though $200 is a lot of money.</p>
<p>Both thumbs? Holy cannoli.</p>
<p>Sounds like he is adapting pretty well. Typing!</p>
<p>Way off topic: I can top the ābreaking both thumbsā story. A friend of mine was encouraged by her kids to try snowboarding on the last day of vacation. She broke both wrists, and couldnāt do ANYTHING for herself for a couple weeks. Consider that a safety moment announcement for those of you going to the snow over the winter break.</p>
<p>Two wrists, Karen Colleges? Thatās very bad, and I sincerely donāt know how Iād manage if that ever happened. I will not be trying out Sās snowboard anytime soon.</p>
<p>S had his orthopedist appointment this afternoon and thankfully, neither thumb needs a cast. But they both need to be immobilized for 6 weeks. Next week we will see a hand specialist to have special orthotics made which will be less bulky than the splints he is in now.</p>
<p>The thought of not skiing for 6 weeks is almost too much for him. That will take him right up to the end of winter break. I think weāll have to figure out some sort of āspeed healingā. :)</p>
<p>Karen Colleges ā I know of a number of people who have broken a wrist snowboarding. That sport has a very steep learning curve and I donāt believe that those of us of a ācertain ageā should be trying it. 
But both wrists at once! She must have been miserable.</p>
<p>She was miserable and very humbled. She had to ask H and D for help with everything, (think hygiene).</p>
<p>Bengalmom, you are right. She was old enough to have teenagers, and is a good skier, but learning to snowboard was not a good idea.</p>
<p>I donāt know why youād be removing air from flasks - his work was with dictyostelium discoideum (slime molds) at the time. There are special flasks that are designed for vacuums. He just got careless.</p>
<p>mathmom - I knew the answer would be something like that - but slime molds? Ick!</p>
<p>Just wanted to wish everyone here a Happy Thanksgiving, and a peaceful one as well - this time next year, we may all be feeling just a little more stressed out than we do now.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to all!</p>
<p>One of our guests today has a senior whoās just about done with her apps.</p>
<p>How odd. This time next year may be extra busy for our families due to the college app rush. Then the following year, not only will that be gone (for many) but our DS or DD may or may not be sitting at that dinner table! Enjoy every minute you have this year, stress or no.</p>
<p>Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Iām thankful that oldest child, S1, is moving steadily along to applying to college next year and being ready to go off to college in the autumn of 2010.</p>
<p>Anybody else have a kid who gets to do a project over thanksgivingā¦ wonderful French teacher 
decided on Tuesday that they should all write and illustrate a childrenās book - at least 20 pages - due on Monday after the breakā¦</p>
<p>I can understand having a project due after the break - but assigning it on the Tuesday???</p>
<p>Thanks - I needed to ventā¦</p>