Monkey Bars

Published

Are the bane of my existence. In the past couple weeks I've had two broken arms from monkey bar falls. With just a day and half between me and spring break, if another kid falls, I might go tear the thing down myself!

On the positive, the ER DR commented to mom that it was smart of whoever splinted the kid's arm with a magazine. Kid told the doc it was the school nurse. ?

Specializes in Med/Surg, Women's Health, LTC.
22 hours ago, BiscuitRN said:

My husband broke his arm on the monkey bars his first day of kindergarten. He didn't want to be a bother so he told the school nurse he felt fine. It was actually broken in 2 places, and he came home with a dangling arm. That would have been the late 90s.

I am in my 50's now, but, my twin sister fell off the monkey bars in 6th grade, broke her humerus in two places and dislocated her shoulder.

Had to be placed under general anesthesia for reduction and casting/splinting. She was kept overnight for observation. My parents took me to the hospital to see her that evening. As soon as I walked in, those nurses in their white uniforms, the smell in the hospital (I am thinking it was the cleaning supplies now!), the doctors in their button down shirts and ties and the candy stripers, all set in motion my desire to be a nurse.

I often credit her and her clumsiness as my gateway into healthcare.

At any rate, the monkey bars scare the bejeezus out of me and I beg my granddaughter,t he same way I begged her Dad, to stay off of them.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.

When I first came on with school nursing there was an old fashioned steel merry-go-round on the playground. Those kids would load that thing up and get it spinning at the speed of sound and see who could hang on the longest as it spit kids out who gave up their grip. I worried and fretted over that thing until I finally got it removed after a couple years but when I think back about it...I don't recall one serious injury from the "wheel of torture." ?

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2 minutes ago, OldDude said:

I worried and fretted over that thing until I finally got it removed after a couple years but when I think back about it...I don't recall one serious injury from the "wheel of torture."

Yes but was it installed over hot lava like ours was??

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Specializes in School Nurse.
9 minutes ago, Wuzzie said:

Yes but was it installed over hot lava like ours was??

Merry-go-rounds, monkey bars, hot lava, are all bringing back fond memories of childhood...how did we ever survive??? ?

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Specializes in Occupational Health.

I was obsessed with merry-go-rounds as a kid. Anything that would spin me around, making me dizzy as hell. Somehow the memories of being flung off aren't too bad either.

That witches wheel looks awesome (says the kid in me and not the school nurse)!

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.

I scraped my ankle up pretty good on the merry-go-round when I was in 4th grade. My two best friends were so mad at me that I wouldn't go tell anyone. The girl drama was strong even back then...

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Specializes in School Nurse, past Med Surge.
2 minutes ago, BluebellRN said:

Anything that would spin me around, making me dizzy as hell.

I was the same way. I loved "whirly, twirly, make you puke" rides at amusement parks, too. And then a couple of years ago I went on a ride like that at our county fair with one of my kids. It took me all day to recover.

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Specializes in School Nursing, Ambulatory Care, etc..

This is the stuff school nurse nightmares are made of

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
1 hour ago, BunnyBunnyBSNRN said:

This is the stuff school nurse nightmares are made of

OMG! I got nauseous just watching that!

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Specializes in School Nurse.
3 hours ago, BunnyBunnyBSNRN said:

This is the stuff school nurse nightmares are made of

Absolutely NO.

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First time poster here! This site helped me out soo much my first year as a school nurse, so hopefully, I can contribute something every now and then!

My brother "broke" his neck on monkey bars when he was 6 years old. He had let go like everyone does, but landed on his knees. His only complaint was a sore neck.. It was my birthday, so my mom was at the school for lunch, and she just had an odd feeling about it, so she took him to the ER. They were kind of blown off at first, because "he says his neck hurts". Lo and behold, they quickly became very important once they saw that his C2 (I believe, same one as Superman, Christopher Reeves, whichever one it was for him) had basically popped out of place.

Like I said, his only symptom was that his neck was sore. I cringe now thinking about it because the PE teacher at the time told him to just roll his neck around.. eek!

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Specializes in Pediatrics Retired.
7 minutes ago, meloyello234 said:

First time poster here! This site helped me out soo much my first year as a school nurse, so hopefully, I can contribute something every now and then!

My brother "broke" his neck on monkey bars when he was 6 years old. He had let go like everyone does, but landed on his knees. His only complaint was a sore neck.. It was my birthday, so my mom was at the school for lunch, and she just had an odd feeling about it, so she took him to the ER. They were kind of blown off at first, because "he says his neck hurts". Lo and behold, they quickly became very important once they saw that his C2 (I believe, same one as Superman, Christopher Reeves, whichever one it was for him) had basically popped out of place.

Like I said, his only symptom was that his neck was sore. I cringe now thinking about it because the PE teacher at the time told him to just roll his neck around.. eek!

That's a scary story...I'm glad there was a happy ending!

Welcome to the club!!

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