Nursemaid's Elbow

Our glorious day of playing outside in 80 degree weather came to an abrupt halt on Saturday night. Josh was playing with the kids at Frick park, and holding Casey by the hand as she jumped from post to post on the "par course." Casey lost her balance and fell back a little bit, and Josh heard something in her right arm (the one he was holding) go "pop." He ran home carrying Casey, and when I heard her cry from the basement stairs I thought, "Oh God, something is broken!." Josh brought Casey upstairs and we tried to figure out what had come out of joint.

Casey was holding her thumb very protectively, so we thought that maybe she had sprained it or that her thumb had popped out of joint. We tried to figure out which one of us should take Casey to the hospital, when it finally dawned on me that we needed one parent to drive, and one parent to comfort Casey. We all piled in the car with some snacks for dinner and a DVD player just in case we had to settle into Children's Hospital for a long, long wait.

Casey got checked out and X-rayed fairly quickly, while Jacob and I scoped out the new snack stand. Then the doctor came in and told us that she thought Casey probably had "nursemaid's elbow." This is when the elbow becomes partially dislocated (subluxated), and it happens more often to girls 3 years and under, and more often on their left arm! You can read more about it here: http://kidshealth.org/parent/medical/bones/nursemaid.html#.

After looking at the X-rays of Casey's hand, the doctor came back in popped Casey's elbow back into joint. Casey cried for a few seconds as the doctor performed the maneuver, but then everything was entirely back to normal. She could move her arm, with no pain, for the first time in 2 hours! It was an Easter miracle!

As the doctor was leaving Josh asked, "Is it hard to have to do that, to feel like you're hurting the child in order to make her feel better?" "Actually," the doctor said, "It's one of the few times in the ER that I can see an immediate improvement in how the child feels. I get to see immediate results!"

Josh and I had been planning an "indoors date" so on the way home from the hospital we picked up some sushi and some beer. Jacob fell asleep in the car on the way home, and Casey was very happy to have her arm all fixed up! They both went to bed without a whimper, and Josh and I reclined in bed with our sushi dinner to watch The Blind Side for our indoor date. We were both relieved that Casey was OK, and that we hadn't spent too much time in the hospital. And we learned a valuable lesson about "nursemaid's elbow"! We'll have to keep a close eye on that arm, because Casey will be vulnerable to a repeat of the injury if we're not careful!