First Trip to the ER

Just before Labor Day, Connor & Grant were playing around. Connor was being pretty rough with Grant and had been told several times to be more gentle. Connor tackled Grant and both fell to the ground pretty hard. Ryan grabbed Connor by the arm to pull him off Grant's head. Connor then started crying saying that his arm hurt. I thought he was slightly exaggerating because he was in trouble, gave him some motrin, and put him to bed. The next morning he wouldn't move his arm and screamed in pain any time it was moved/bumped, etc. so I took him to the ER for xrays. The PA said she didn't see any breaks and that it was more likely a sprain or contusion, gave him a sling, and sent him home with instructions to follow up with his doctor the next day. So I made the appointment for the next morning and an hour later the doctor's office called back and said they wanted to see him immediately. Of course I started to freak out and ran around like a chicken with its head cut off getting Connor up from his nap and to the office. I took him in and the PA said she was reading the ER report and was concerned that he possibly had nursemaid's elbow and the ER missed it. 

She told me that nursemaid's elbow is basically a dislocated elbow joint, and the sooner you can get it back into joint, the better, so she didn't want to wait until the next morning for the appointment. Sure enough, she was checking him out and all of a sudden I heard a pop. Connor screamed bloody murder and my eyes rolled back in my head and I started sweating profusely. She said that it is really painful for kids when she pops it back in but should provide immediate relief and he should start using his arm again.  He calmed down within a few minutes, but was really hesitant to use his arm. I thought maybe once we got home and into his own environment he would start using it again, but he really didn't.

Even the next morning, he kept complaining that his arm hurt. He couldn't really tell me if it actually hurt or if he was just afraid it WOULD hurt because it DID hurt the day before. I debated whether I should keep him home for the day but ultimately decided that I would send him to school in hopes that when he was around the other kids he would forget that he was afraid to use his arm. I did ask them to call me at lunch time to let me know if he still wasn't using it. Meanwhile, his doctor's office called me at work to follow up and see how he was feeling. I told the nurse that he hadn't used his arm much that morning and that I was concerned because it was a holiday weekend and I didn't want to wait until Monday if I picked him up from school at 5 and he still wasn't using it. She called me back and told me that the doctor wanted him to be seen that day by an orthopedist just in case. And that she had called around and the only practice that had an opening needed us to be there in 20 minutes.  I rushed out of work and was sweating profusely (again) by the time I got to school. He didn't see me right away when I walked in and of course he was using his arm as normal. Ugh. I thought about just ditching the ortho appt, but we went anyway just in case. It was very quick. The doctor said he was probably just really sore since it had been out of joint for almost 24 hours. He said it is liable to happen again, and showed me how to try to pop it back in to joint. I told him I probably wouldn't be able to do that without fainting, but it didn't seem all that complicated. 

Thankfully, by the next day he was feeling much better and we were able to enjoy the long weekend. I'm sure, with two very active boys, that it won't be our last visit to the ER but hopefully it will be quite some time before we have any reason to go back!