Sarah's elbow

2 weeks ago, Sarah hurt herself while playing downstairs.  I saw the aftermath - a hurt Sarah on the floor, laying next to a ball and on top of a video - but I didn't see the actual accident.  She cried and I comforted her.  She said her elbow hurt.  I suspected nursemaid's elbow, but decided to wait and see how she felt after a while.

She took a nap and woke up, still complaining and still unwilling to move her arm.  Classic symptoms of nursemaid's elbow, so I tried to pop her elbow back into place.  It didn't work and she screamed.  I held her and comforted her.  She didn't improve.  I spoon fed her dinner to her as she laid on the couch with her arm propped up.  I decided to try to fix her elbow one more time, and if it didn't work, we would go to the walk-in clinic.  It didn't work, so we were off.

We got her there and I explained the situation.  I told him what I suspected, but that I had tried to fix it and failed.  He told me that nursemaid's elbow doesn't happen from falling down.  He examined her arm.  He said she needed an x-ray.

So we got the x-rays taken.  They didn't see a fracture.  However, the doctor assured us that in children that age, you can't always see fractures, expecially near joints.  So, he determined that we would treat her injury like a fracture until she proved otherwise.  I asked once again about nursemaid's elbow.  It was close to closing time and I think he really wanted to go home, so he humored me and tried to fix it.  He did a horrible looking thing to her arm.  He twisted it in a rather violent looking way - not at all the gentle way Dr. Luba taught me how to fix nursemaid's elbow.  Sarah screamed bloody murder.  He left and sent in the women who would put on the splint.  While we waited, her arm seemed to be getting better.

They came in and measured Sarah.  They told us the prodecure for how they would make the splint.  First, they had a sleeve to put on her arm that would cover her from elbow to hand.  They needed to get it on her arm with her thumb through a hole.  They put it towards Sarah's arm and she reached her "injured" arm straight out to get it on.  They were shocked.  They said she was being way more cooperative than they expected her to be.  One of them then asked for a high five and Sarah complied.  They left to get the doctor because they were pretty sure this little girl's arm was just fine.

The doctor seemed quite annoyed that he was called back.  She needs a splint no matter what.  So the ladies came back and put the splint on Sarah. 

By this time, Sarah was exhausted.  It was 8:15 and she didn't want to be there any more.  She was begging us to take her home.  She was mopey and laying against my shoulder.

When the doctor came back in to give us instructions, he said we should keep the splint on for a week and go in to see our regular doctor, or come back to him, and see how her arm was doing at that point.  He was sure that she was not well because of her demeanor.  He said she would let us know when she was ok by playing.  Both Robert and I were quite sure she was ok before she got the splint on, but we didn't feel like fighting the doctor.

On our way home, we stopped for ice cream at Dairy Queen.  Sarah hopped, jumped and ran all over the store with that splint and her little sling.  She looked so cute and happy.  We didn't go back to the doctor and tell him we told you so.  We just laughed between ourselves and rolled our eyes.  15 minutes after the doctor had sent us home, Sarah had let us know she was ok.


(5 days later we took Sarah in to get her splint taken off.  Other that a little stiffness from not moving her arm for 5 days, she was in perfect health.)