We woke up late after getting back from our Austria trip and were getting ready to go to a friend's birthday party. I was exasperated while trying to get a very uncooperative Morgan dressed. I had hold of her wrist and was pulling on her hand to get it through the armhole at the very moment she decided to stop standing on her own legs. The force of her sagging and my pulling dislocated her elbow apparently. I didn't realize it in the moment because although her screaming increased, she was already pretty unhappy with me. A minute or so later though, the cry was a hurt cry and then I felt bad because she was holding her limp wrist. Hello Guilt, take a seat on my shoulders please. Fantastic, thanks.
We wrapped her wrist and forearm in an ace bandage and headed to the party thinking we'd keep our eye on it. Our friend who has a great deal of emergency medical training took a look at it and gave me all sorts of worse case scenarios relating to her growth plates and such while being a laid back wait-and-see type of guy. What do you do?!
On a side note, when we got home from the party and were getting out of the van, I was admiring one of McKay's German classmates riding his bike with no training wheels. McKay said hi to his friend and was starting to walk inside. The little guy stopped his bike and began talking to me, of course, in German. I was unloading the car and the little guy kept repeating himself to me so I could understand but there was just no hope. I've been a complete slacker on the language front.
Then I hear McKay holler, "My mom doesn't speak German yet." His voice was apologetic and matter of fact. Across the street, the other boy's mother burst into spontaneous uproarious laughter! She couldn't help herself, it was a gut laugh! She quickly translated what McKay said into German for her husband and they were still laughing out loud minutes later as I sheepishly chuckled to myself walking into the house with all our pool gear. It was just too classic. I really wish I'd stuck to learning German last fall and hope I do better this year as Easton starts at the bilingual international school here. I better start practicing!
Back to Morgan's arm . . . After a rather sleepless night, she was still obviously not willing to put weight on that arm or even move it. Later that evening after we'd gotten our crew plus two young visiting cousins to bed, we hit the internet to see if we could figure out what to do with her. We immediately found descriptions of Nursemaid's Elbow and boy did it fit! The name bugs me. It does nothing for my guilt. But would you be surprised to find there were youtube videos showing doctors in their offices and mothers at home resetting arms?! Holy Cow!
Ryan was all excited to go try the simple procedure right then but I couldn't bear the idea of how Morgan would cry in pain, not to mention wake up the other four kids we'd just gotten to sleep and who would have to be settled down again. So he tried it first thing the next morning and WALAH! It worked!!! Within an hour she was back to climbing up to the kitchen table and grazing everyone's leftover cereal. Only this time she had five bowls to graze instead of three! Gross. But it sure makes her happy and feel independent. I knew she was cured and that did wonders for assuaging my guilt and the anxiety welling up in me of taking five kids between 1 and 6 to a doctor's office!
Ryan, you are my Mr. Incredible!
