X-Rays and Two Year Olds Don't Mix

Last night we had our first trip to the Pediatric Urgent Care. When Belle and I had got home from day care last night we noticed that she wasn’t using her right arm. She wouldn’t move it and cried if we tried to move it. The only fall we could think of was from Monday night. When we were out trick or treating Belle decided she wanted to get out of the stroller. Instead of telling us she chose to jump out of the moving stroller. You can imagine how that ended. She cried but was fine within a minute and we didn’t think anything of it. This kid is like her mommy, she falls…a lot.

I called our pediatrician and after being on hold for 5 minutes I was redirected to the answering machine. A little tip to doctor’s offices do not put on your website and advertise that you are open until 8 if you shut your phones off at 5 with a message saying you are closed. The nurse that finally called me back told us that they were full and to take her to the pediatric urgent care. So we were off at 6 in the evening and no dinner.

Luckily when we got there, there was basically no one there. We were seen right away and the doctor and nurse determined it was nursemaid’s elbow. Unfourtunatly since this was the first incident they wanted x-rays to be sure. Doing x-rays on a two year is near impossible. I think she was in the room for almost an hour. The Hubs and I were not allowed into the room so we had to sit outside the door and listen to her scream bloody murder. At one point the tech came out and asked one of us to come in and help. The Hubs told me to go. My poor kid looked so sad it broke my heart. I was able to hold her arm steady and we got two x-rays done. The last one they needed wasn’t going to happen. We had to change her position and she didn’t want to do this anymore. She fought us both, wouldn’t sit and at one point started flailing her entire body, even the injured arm. We managed to get the “picture” but the doctor wanted one more.

I finally couldn’t do it anymore and had to switch with The Hubs. He was in the room with her for another 15 minutes without any luck when the doctor came in and decided to give Belle a break from it. Belle calmed down and immediately started using her injured arm again. All the flailing and fighting actually popped her dislocated elbow back into place.

The doctor gave her a popsicle and gave us some bubbles. We took her out the waiting room and she chased the bubbles trying to pop them and was reading books, jumping and giving us high fives. She even tried to do her forward roll. I was so happy to see my kid back to normal.

The doctor gave Belle some treats for being so good. She got some stickers and a new small stuffed animal. The doctor also showed us how to fix it ourselves if this were to ever happen again. Which apparently since it has happened once, she is prone to have it happen again. But from what we have heard she can grow out of it.

It was so heart breaking to see my child so sad. We knew there was something wrong but she just couldn’t tell us what. The immediate change once her elbow was fixed was amazing. She went from a sad little girl who sat there and did nothing to a happy little girl running and playing. Amazing. Hopefully this will not happen again but at least we now know what it is and how to fix it.

We finally left urgent care around nine o’clock so we were not there that long, but I am exhausted. I felt helpless that I could not help my child, I could not fix her, and I could not stop the pain. Thankfully toddlers are very resilient!

We did finally figure out what had happened while we were watching her play in the waiting room. When I went to pick Belle up from daycare that evening she was fine. She ran up to me with a ball and was playing in the little tree house in the gym area. When we were leaving I was holding her hand and she went to turn away from me, as she did she fell to the ground, at the same exact moment a little boy was in a cozy coupe car and swung it around towards Belle. I saw this and quickly pulled Belle out of the way so she would not get run over. That is when Belle started to cry. It all happened in just a few seconds time. I thought she was because she didn’t want to go home. But after we got her coat on she walked out all by herself. It was at home when The Hubs and I noticed she wasn’t using her arm.

Thankfully it wasn’t a fracture like we had thought it was and she is fine. She is at school today playing with all her friends like nothing ever happened.