Monday, January 31, 2011

Dislocated Elbow

Last night I heard my six year old howling in pain when she had been wrestling and playing with all the kids and my husband in the lower living room.  She was crying hard and long enough I figured that I should go and check out what was happening. (My husband had been there taking care of her at first).  When I got there, she was snuggled up against daddy and would not move her arm.  Her sister had pulled on her arm to help her get away from her daddy who had pinned her down with his legs.  The action had caused immediate pain to her elbow.  She wouldn't turn her hand over, and any type of moving of her body or her arm brought immediate shrieks of pain.  I knew right away what was wrong - she had nursemaids elbow - aka radial head subluxation.  The problem was that I had never reduced one or even seen one reduced.  I got on the internet and read how to do it.  I tried it one time to only be rewarded with shrieks of terror and pain by my sweet little girl.  Fortunately due to an unknown infectious process that hit her about the same time with a fever and fatigue, she fell asleep and only woke up to go to the potty through the entire night.  This morning I got her in with my colleagues who were able to fix her arm quite promptly, and teach me how to do it in the meantime.

It was such a relief to see my girl use her arm again to wave at the staff as she left.  She spent the rest of the day sleeping off her virus and even now is doing the same.  It is for times like these that I am glad that we aren't living in the bush.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ouch, that sounds painful just reading about it. So glad it was taken care of. Hope she continues to heal well. :)

JoAnn

The Last Frontier said...

So sorry that happened to your daughter. I've been wanting to learn how to do that, so now I will have to.
God always seems to take care of us. Even with some of the seemingly awful things that have happened, it's always been stuff that I have the knowledge and experience to handle, and can take care of out here in the bush.
Hope your daughter gets to feeling better soon, and that it doesn't spread to the rest of your family.
BTW, your Comfrey Salve is on the way. It was mailed Sunday.

Carol G said...

The reality of it is that when you face crises like this, you know you have to do it. I knew that I could take Elly in. If I were in the bush, I'd figure out a way to fix it, and so would you... I'm a coward at heart though, I think.

Jennifer Hoots said...

That had to be just awful for you all!!! I hope she is still doing well.

Illinois Lori said...

Your poor little sweetheart! You get a great big pat on the back for even trying to fix it...it's one thing to learn a new procedure/skill on a patient in pain, but quite another when it's your own child. So glad that episode is over...for BOTH of you!