When to send back to school after broken ankle?

[DressedToThe90s]

My son managed to break his ankle quite badly and had to have surgery earlier this week with two screws put in. He’s starting to feel a bit better now and I was wondering when he can realistically go back to school. Originally I’d thought he’d go back this Monday coming, but I’m worried about how he will move around the site without exhausting himself and being in pain. I’ve offered to get him one of those knee scooter things but he refuses point blank! He’s in a plaster cast up to his knee, and will have it changed to a lighter one and stitches out in another weeks time. He’s Y10 so really can’t afford to miss too much school at this point. Would be interested in hearing what others have done in this situation as well please! I’m actually not sure he’ll be able to put his school
trousers on over the cast which is another worry 🙈

AIBU- let the poor kid have another few days off school to heal
AINBU- try and get him back in ASAP and see how he gets on

My grandchild broke a leg at 5 years old. The school refused to have them in, unless a parent or grandparent was with them. A primary school is usually on one level, but they were concerned about toiletting etc.

I think your son needs to be able to get around with the cast or boot safely, especially in a busy secondary school. Online lessons for the moment, until he’s more used to it and not in pain.

My DD (10) broke her tibia on Wednesday; we’re hoping to get her back to school on Monday. We’ve hired a wheelchair from the British Red Cross for her to use in school, she has crutches too but isn’t very confident on them. School have said they’ll allocate her with a buddy each day to help her with doors, toilet, stay in a break etc. I’m meeting with school on Monday morning to discuss it further.
she’s currently got a back slab cast, but we’re hoping it gets changed soon.

Talk to the school

Hopefully more sympathetic than the school I was at where my friend broke her ankle. The school still insisted she had to adhere to the one way system to hobble on crutches even though one lesson was 10m from the next lesson, in the opposite direction. Honestly, I can't remember how long she was off initially

What are the rules of students who are injured/ill when timetabled for PE? Is it still standing outside when the class is doing outdoors stuff? We had double PE during her time in the cast, last thing. Her DF picked her up just before the double PE as it meant leaning against a wall for 1h 40 mins in freezing cold. Wasn't allowed a stool or chair to sit on due to HnS (this was 1995) I remember she broke the ankle in Feb.

Also it depends on how many floors the school is on, does he keep going up and down the stairs. Plus steps between buildings etc.

speak to the school.
all mine have been back to school after breaks almost immediately. last time (broken hand) they organised a buddy system helping lugging the stuff around.

Contact the school, discuss, agree ... get him back in asap

I've broken both ankles and had 4 operations on one of them, just one on the other. I'd definitely say let him stay off until the stitches are out and the lighter cast is on. I didn't take elevating it above my heart seriously after my first break and ended up with really painful swelling and a DVT.

In terms of getting around at school, I found a knee crutch really useful for getting about https://kneecrutches.co.uk/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQjwytS-BhCKARIsAMGJyzr5yMR_vf8Eq9VkFD0MuyEm-MAXU3XL9-MW57DPGfF8LN44bMxjbu8aArn1EALw_wcB (pricey but might be available for hire)

You got yourself out of cover/lunch duty. Most teachers would be off 6-8 weeks is my estimate

Talk to the school..might be if you do go for Monday he only does a few hours...see how his pain is. Can school send work home

More great ideas, thank you. I’ll show him the knee crutch but suspect he’ll reject it- typical teenage boy where image is everything! He’s got games Monday afternoon anyway, so if he feels up to it maybe I’ll take him in just for the morning and talk to school to get a plan in place, and then we can see how he copes- if it’s too much then we can rethink. I’ve asked school to send some work for him but he hasn’t had much, and neither has he felt very motivated to do much. Maybe as the pain gets better he’ll be able to focus a bit more (although he’s having no problem focusing on playing fifa!).

It's not just the pain @DressedToThe90s its the swelling. When I broke my ankle many years ago now, it swellled up so much if I had my foot down for too long, and one of the things the drs told me to do was to keep it elevated. I would see if school can send him some work to do at home and see how that goes.