Tales from the E.R.

Thus far, our summer has entailed a whole lot of doctors. Last week, Elijah and Isabel were playing in the basement when I heard a thud accompanied by wailing. At first, all I got was that Elijah was walking, fell down and hurt his arm. This story morphed multiple times until the kids finally agreed on a version that involved Elijah reaching up to get the "syrup" down from his play kitchen, and falling backwards onto his elbow.

I took one look at the way he was holding his arm, and immediately suspected nursemaid's elbow. He's had it twice before (once in each arm), and he adopts a very specific posture when it happens. Of course, it happened after our pediatrician's office was already closed, so we had to go to the ER.

Once there, Jon told the doctor that we were pretty sure it was nursemaid's elbow. The doctor replied that it definitely was not nursemaid's elbow, that he had already attempted the reduction and nothing happened. He then took Elijah to get a bunch of x-rays to see if anything was broken. The x-rays all showed up clean, and the doctor appeared baffled, while Elijah was still in extreme pain. Ultimately the ER doctor decided to put him in a splint and a sling and send him home, telling us to follow up with the pediatrician the following week.

Elijah was in horrible pain all night, and I had to run to the pharmacy at 3am to get him some medicine so that he could fall asleep. It was a miserable night for all of us, and as soon as we woke up, we were on our way to the pediatrician's office. Bu this time, his poor hand was completely swollen, and he was still in a lot of pain.

They didn't want to unwrap his arm, so they sent us to a bone and joint specialist. Once there, he unwrapped E's arm, took another x-ray (which was also clean) and determined the injury to be nursemaid's elbow. He reduced it, put E in a temporary cast to stabilize the joint so it wouldn't slip out again, and sent us on our merry way.

Elijah's totally fine now. And I am never ever ever going to the Emergency Room again. Ugh!