Nursemaid’s Elbow
December 30th, 2010Go on, Google it. I’ll wait.
I hope you read the technical definition and looked carefully at all the pictures. Now, let me tell you why I bring it up.
About a year ago, I came out of the back of the house to find Michael refusing to move his arm and Megan looking like she was in trouble. With a little prompting, I found out that Megan broke one of the MAIN rules of Momma: don’t pull on your little brother’s arms. Sure enough, she had. She said she was trying to “help” him. Hmm. Well, I called the doctor, got an appointment, got a screaming boy barely buckled in (boy did he cry when I touched that arm!) and got him to the doctor’s office. He cried when I got him un-buckled at the office, and even whimpered a few times in the waiting room. However, walking back to the patient room, he all of a sudden got better. I thought the doctor would think I was NUTS. Instead, she diagnosed nursemaid’s elbow, told me how to adjust it in the future, and sent us home with a smile.
I get home, call my mom, tell her Megan broke Michael. Mom *loves* this. It turns out this is what I did to my baby sister, Tobi, some 20+ years ago. Little, cute Tobi was standing behind the couch and said “Sissy, up!” I complied, grabbing her by the wrists and bringing her over the couch. Fast forward about 8 hours, when Dad came to wake me in the top bunk. He said they were taking Tobi to the ER. She apparently had been fussy on and off for hours and they thought she had a tummy ache, but she wasn’t moving her arm. I tearily confessed my crime and begged forgiveness. Dad, (I now know to have been) delighted to have an explanation for it all, took Mom and Tobi to the ER. Poor Tobi had to wear an arm sling for 3 days, when that arm finally relaxed into place and she could move it again. When Mom told me this, I was thankful Michael’s was a shorter sentence.
Fast forward to last night. We came slinking in after midnight (on a work night for my mom!!), all apologetic for being so late. Mom is sitting sheepishly on the couch. She tells us that Megan was likely still up. Megan was at a bounce house yesterday, then at a McDonald’s playground last night. But how does she give herself Nursemaid’s Elbow? She slipped off her Smart Cycle bike and tried to stop her fall. The poor girl had a rough-ish night, but, of course, the danged arm fixed itself on her way to the doctor this morning.
Oh, and yes, I tried the fix the doctor taught me. It just made her scream louder, but I’d like to think maybe it helped, too…
So, now you know all my stories on Nursemaid’s Elbow, the oddest little thing the little people in my life get afflicted with. Some other time, I’ll tell you about bleeding like a stuck frenulum…