Our first major injury

On Friday evening, Nora fell off of the swingset. She falls off of things everyday and I hardly pay much attention. You know - as a mom, you become adept at distinguishing between real cries and not so real cries. I had never heard this cry before.

I ran over there to help her up and did one of those huge, loud gasps that tells everyone in the vicinity that something horrible just happened - it also sends all little children into a big panic... Wait, my mom is actually shocked and upset about something - that must mean that its REALLY bad!

So off to the ER we went. Cornbread driving, me holding Nora's hand during the longest 15 minute car ride of my life. Luckily we were with our next door neighbors and they just kept the other two girls.

It was ugly and we weren't sure if it was broken, dislocated or both. We were triaged immediately and brought to the fast track area of the ER (didn't even know they had one of those). Tylenol with codeine, iv fluids, xrays, anesthesia, more (better) xrays, and admittance to the peds floor all consumed our night. She was tired and slept a lot, but she was a trooper. You may recall that I've mentioned that she is a little oversensitive and dramatic, however, in this case she was very brave and really did well - she cried when it hurt, but she didn't panic, she didn't scream - she just hurt. I was proud of her.

So it turns out that she dislocated her elbow. And my best guess is that her initial xrays looked like this (based on what the outside looked like - this is what I imagine the bones looked like):

She also broke one of the knobby things off of her bone and it is kind of floating around in there. We have to go for a follow up appointment this week to find out if the pediatric orthopedic doctor thinks she needs surgery (lets hope not) or if it will heal on its own. The orthopedic doctor we were dealing with seemed to think it would heal okay on its own. So she has a splint and a sling and is still in quite a bit of pain. She's also getting just about anything and everything she's asking for, so that may be contributing to the "pain" she is feeling:)

We haven't told her that her tball season is over. I'm pretty certain she'll be reacting worse than this when we do:

She is right handed and this is presenting many difficulties for her daily life. She has to learn how to color with her left hand ("if I do I will SCRIbble and I don't like scribbles!"), how to do most things with just one hand, and how to sleep comfortably without moving very much. These are hard lessons for a 5 year old, but she will get it and will be better off for it.

I'm thankful that it wasn't worse than it is and we're praying that she heals well, heals quickly and won't have to have surgery.

And just so you know - she's our cautious child. We never expected this to happen to HER. Its going to be an interesting several years with the other two:)