Nursemaid's Elbow

It's been exactly one week since we had a traumatizing experience in the Dumit household! Looking back, it wasn't such a big deal, but boy was it terrible while I was living it!

 

Last Wednesday, I got to my sister-in-law's house to pick Anderson up and she was outside playing with her cousins. I let her play for a few minutes and the picked her up to put her in the car. She was trying to run away and play some more, so I did slightly grab one arm more than the other, but it was nothing even remotely forceful! I mean, not even kidding. She immediately started crying. I mean, really crying. I thought she was "mad crying" because she wanted to keep playing. I was making jokes about what a temper she had and went ahead put her in the car. She cried most of the way home and I knew something was wrong because she never does that. She might get mad about something, but is usually easily distracted. Not this time. When we got home, I got her out of the car and she had her arm bent and was holding it close to her body. I immediately freaked out and started crying because I knew something was wrong. I thought back and it hit me that I must have done it when I picked her up because that's when she started crying, so I frantically called the doctor to see what could be wrong. I love the Children's Clinic because they immediately put me in touch with the doctor I wanted to talk to. Dr. Manley told me that it was probably Nursemaid's Elbow or it could be a fracture. I'm sure he thought I was crazy because I was crying and asking him if I could have done it. He assured me that I didn't, but I knew I must have because that's when she started crying. He told me to take her to MD360, so we packed her up and took her on. At this point she seemed pretty happy, but she wouldn't move her arm and would cry any time you touched it. Well, to make a long story short, we got there and they took about two seconds to "click" her arm back into place. Apparently, Nursemaid's Elbow is really common for children between the ages of 1-4. Now that it's happened to Anderson, I've had so many people tell me stories of it happening to their kids. It still doesn't make me feel any less bad about that fact that I must have done it to her.

 

We are acting crazy now and are probably being waaaay overly cautious. It's just that it happened so easily. We weren't swinging her by her arms (which is how is usually happens), nor was I being forceful. We're having to change the way we operate. No more holding her by the arm and letting her walk down the stairs.

 

I'm sure I'll get over it and get back to normal soon, but just please be careful, everyone! It can happen so easily!