Ouchie

We spent the better part of our evening last night in the ER with Shelby.

SHE'S OKAY.

But... has an injured right arm. Possibly broken, but they can't see a fracture on the x-ray so they think it might be on the growth plate.

Let me back up.

Matt has been working hard to put together an awesome recording studio for me over the last few weeks. (Another post for another time.) He had just got a few new components hooked up and had asked me to come back to the office/"recording studio" to try it out. Shelby and Ellie were trying to sit "quietly" on the couch in the room with us while Matt and I did some testing. Anyway, at some point Shelby got restless and started trying to stand up and Ellie's big-sister-wanna-be-helpful switch kicked in. Somehow in trying to prevent Shelby from toppling off the couch head first, Ellie twisted Shelby's arm and it "popped" (according to Ellie).

This is where the crying (the kind you KNOW is not good) started and didn't stop. It wasn't long before we knew we needed to have her checked. Matt jumped on the phone to see what the after-hours dispatch said and we got the biggest run around! We finally just decided to take her to the ER.

The doctors (yes, multiple doctors checked her out. It must have been a slow evening in the ER) looked her over and suggested that her elbow might have been yanked out of socket. (Nurse-maid elbow) So they did the painful adjustment to fix it. Supposedly if that is the problem, the patient generally responds well after they adjust it (10-15 minutes and they begin to use the arm again.) Shelby did not. She cried harder and still would not use her arm (even after multiple efforts using suckers and popsicles). So then we headed to radiology. Let me tell you how much fun THAT was. The one good thing, she didn't move her arm while they were doing all the x-rays.

The x-rays came back okay. No visible fracture, but with her still in a lot of pain (they tried ANOTHER elbow adjustment. No cigar.) they concluded that there could be a fracture on the growth plate which would not show up on the x-ray. So they put her arm in a fiberglass splint, added a cute little sling, some IBP and orders to make an appointment to see an orthopedic doctor. She will remain in the splint until Monday when we see the orthopedic doctor for a follow up and probably another set of x-rays.

She had a pretty good night, considering. (I however, slept very little. Perks of being a worry-wart.) She is doing well this morning, still favoring her sore arm, trying to rip off the sling and the splint. Never a dull moment!