My youngest boy recently broke his left arm (the radius bone). The ER at the hospital looked much like a lounge, with couches, stuffed chairs, a television, coffee maker and snack machines.
Healing has a lot to do with severity of the injury (some require surgery to repair) and age of the patient (younger victims heal much faster than older people).
In my son's case, the fracture isn't too bad. The bone is still connected and appears on the x-ray like a thin tree branch that's been splintered almost in half.
A couple of other things that might be helpful:
The hospital staff did not place a cast on the arm. They provided a splint to immobilize the limb until we could seek treatment from an orthopedic specialist.
With the splint in place, we had up to ten days to seek additional treatment.
Casts are made of fiberglass and come in a range of colors, including pink and blue and purple and black.
In many cases, both the radius and ulna bones break at the same time.
When the injury heals, it becomes stronger at the point of fracture than the surrounding bone.
My boy's cast will be removed this Thursday, less than one month from when he was hurt.
