Doctor or Magician?

Thursday nights are pretty busy at our house once a month. I have Bunco and Jess has softball games. We have been lucky enough that his games haven't started until 8:30 pm, leaving us to only need a babysitter for about an hour.

When I arrived home around 9:00 pm Jill, Jess' mom, and I were sitting there talking when I heard Maddox start SCREAMING! At first I thought, 'oh great, Mason is teasing him again.' When it kept going I decided to go back there. (This brings back memories of another time when Maddox was calling my name and crying and I was ignoring him because he didn't sound hurt. When I finally went to check on him, he was laying on the ground with the changing table on top of him. Don't worry, he wasn't hurt. I know my cries. He was just mad that he was stuck.)

Okay, back to my story.... screaming, screaming, screaming... Mason was in there trying to see what was wrong with him. Maddox was screaming "my arm, my arm!" Mason said, "daddy pulled his arm." I noticed Maddox had a heating pad on his arm and he was NOT moving it.

After much time trying to figure out where it hurt, what happened, trying to get him to stop crying, and convincing him to try to sit up so I could look at it, I decided to take him to the ER. I didn't feel like I was over reacting because I have had a broken arm before and I remember no one believing me that it hurt except my mom. It didn't LOOK broken. But, I also hesitated because Jill thought I should give it until morning, I couldn't get a hold of Jess, and we are still paying ER bills from when Maddox was in the hospital in June.

I decided to call my SIL Erin and my friend Merridee. Both of them have had young kids that have broken their arms and I wanted to know what to really look for. I didn't get a hold of either of them, which I thought was weird. I then decide I had better just go. I had visions of him waking up in the middle of the night screaming and I SO did not want to go to the ER at 2:30 in the morning.

Jess ended up calling me back on my way there so I had more of an idea of what happened. Jess was holding his hands and walking with him when Maddox went limp and dropped, yanking on his arm. We have all been there, so you will want to keep reading. :-)

I arrived at the ER at about 9:30 pm. I was shocked when they looked right at me and asked me if I needed to see a doctor. They checked us in and took us immediately back to a cubicle. The doctor came in right away, asked us what happened, checked his arm, asked what time it happened, and then told me what was wrong. He still wanted to take x-rays to make sure he was right and that there wasn't a fracture.

It turned out that he had what they call Nursemaid's Elbow.
Nursemaid's elbow is the name given for an injury where one bone of the elbow joint is pulled out of place and gets stuck in that position. This usually occurs when lifting or pulling the child by one or both arms.
This injury is due to a weakness in the ligaments of the elbow that some children have at this age. It is usually easy to correct by your doctor, but may recur if the arm is pulled again. Ligaments strengthen by five years of age and nursemaid's elbow will not occur after that.

The doctor said that it was such a good thing that I was able to get him in within four hours because after that it is very hard to correct. He had a child a few weeks earlier that didn't come in until twelve hours later and he was not able to fix it. What happens in this case, I am not sure.

These are the things I was sitting there feeling grateful for as I was waiting for the x-rays to come back.

1. That my SIL and friend did not answer the phone. Otherwise, I might have waited it out and not taken him in right away.
2. That the ER was not busy and he was able to get back there within 3 hours from when it happened.
3. Obviously, that he did not have to wear a cast. Thank goodness!!
4. That I decided to trust the spirit, my instincts, my gut and not waited until morning.
5. That I actually WON at Bunco so I had candy to take to keep Maddox happy! :-)

At about 10:45 the doctor came in, Jess was there by then, and they both sat Maddox up to fix his arm. He found the ligament, pushed on it, flexed the arm, and popped it back in place. Maddox screamed and cried for about a minute. Five minutes later, he was perfect, happy, and ready to go. He turned and said to me, "Does that doctor know magic?" Aw, if only all ER visits ended in only two hours with a perfect, complete cure.

Sorry! These were taken with my phone. Who remembers to bring a camera to the ER?