After winning the Lousy Mother of the Year award in 2007 for my daughter's unnatural ability to spot a peanut butter cup, I've already secured the title for 2008.
Wendy and I were waiting for James after church last night. She wanted to run like a hooligan, and I wanted to keep her a bit more in control, so I was holding her hand. She decided to play and swing from my hand, and I let her. She thought it was funny, and then she got cranky.
Not thinking too much about it, I pulled her back up and we went on. Then I began to notice that every time we touched her right arm, she cried. When Grandpa gave her a hug, when James tried to get her attention, and when I was putting her coat on. Hmm.
We drove home, and she fussed a bit in the car. We got home and took her coat off, and her whole right arm, from above the elbow to her wrist, was slightly puffy and red. Uh oh.
We made our first ER trip last night. After an exam by a nice doctor and some radiographs, Wendy was diagnosed with Nursemaid Elbow - a dislocated elbow. It had worked its way back into place before the doctor saw her, but there was some residual swelling and pain.
I'm giving myself the Lousy Mother of the Year award because I knew this could happen! I knew someone whose 3 year old daughter dislocated her elbow under almost identical circumstances. I just never thought it would actually happen to Wendy. So no more swinging by the hands, no more picking up by the arms, and now we even have to be careful putting on her jacket. If it dislocates once, it's much more likely to happen again. Sigh.
The good news is that she's fine this morning. And I hope we never, ever have to make another nighttime jaunt to the ER!
10 comments:
Aw, poor little sweetie! Don't feel too bad; my brother-in-law had the same experience with our nephew.
Yikes! I always thought kids were so impervious to harm! Another mental note to myself for the future...
(by the way, thanks for learning all these lessons FOR me!) :)
I know how you feel. When Jordan was learning to walk, he was pulling up on the entertainment center, lost his balance and fell to the floor - all while his hand still had a tight grip on the shelf of the entertainment center. It took us the better part of an entire day to figure out we should probably have him seen by a doctor. Sure enough it was Nursemaid elbow. I'm sure being swung around by his brother all the time prior to this little mishap didn't help the situation either. Fortunately, he never had another problem!
I'm glad she's doing fine today! :-)
This is more common than you'd think, Jeni. It doesn't qualify you for Lousy Mother of the Year, although I imagine I'd feel the same. You're doing a great job!
And I love the post about Wendy taking initiative on her naps.
AND yes, Salade Nicoise is good -- it is a French salad that I ate at restaurants in Togo, and I don't think I would have thought that it was good, either, if I hadn't have tried it. :)
So sorry about the deleted comment above. It was written from my new blogsite I am making in German. It is not ready and forgot to log out of it.
Anyway, I was writing to thank you for visiting my blogsite. So sorry about the elbow! I didn't know about that, but will remember when playing with my 1 year old. Oh, it feels bad when our kids get hurt and we feel responsible. I got the Lousy Mother Award last year for something. Needless to say, my little man is still around;)
This really is common! I saw it a lot when I worked at the ER in college. I know you feel bad, but this definitely does not make you a lousy mother!
you only THINK you win that award!! now... if you'd kindly hand it over to me... I actually think I'M the winner... Audrey had nursemaid's elbow TWICE in one month last summer.
*takes a bow*
This happened to me when I was 3 or 4. My mom blames me and I blame her :)
It is my earliest memory!!
My mom is a great mom and I don't hold it against her! We laugh about it now!! (Though I do carry on a bit about the extreme serious pain involved in putting the elbow back!)
Aw Jeni! I am so sorry. I know that made you sad. Praying for your little sugar to heal really fast :)
Love,
holly
PS I'm on week one day 3 of BG, so let me know by email when you'd like to talk about it.
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