I'm finally ready to share this story. One night, about two weeks after Nic was born, Nora and I were fighting about her going to the bathroom. It had been close to 5 hours since she had last gone and she was refusing to go. As I was leading her to the bathroom, I was holding onto her left arm. I told her she had absolutely no choice and was going to the bathroom that second. Nora promptly dropped to her knees all the while I was still holding tightly to her arm. I heard a horrible popping sound and Nora started screaming and holding her elbow.
I couldn't believe it, I thought I had broken my child's arm! I was bawling! My sister was out in the living room holding Nic. I carried Nora out of her room and told Amber that we needed to take Nora to the ER right away because I had just broken her arm. Long story short, Grandpa drove us to the ER, we picked up Brian at a bus stop where he got off in the middle of his commute home and we made it to the ER within 10 minutes. Dad had the flashers on, I was holding Nora in the front seat and we didn't stop at a single red light. The whole way to the ER, all Nora kept saying was, "Mommy pulled my arm! Mommy why are you crying? Do you have tears?"
We got to the ER and went to the window to sign in. The first thing out of Nora's mouth was, "Mommy pulled my arm!" The nurse at the desk smiled at me and said, "Nursemaids elbow, huh?" I didn't understand what she said and continued to cry while we found a place to sit. We distracted Nora from the pain by reading her books and feeding her M & M's during the 15 minute wait.
After explaining the story again to the nurse that checked her in, she too said, "Oh, don't worry, I'm sure it's just Nursemaids Elbow." This time I was a little more calm and heard the words she said. I still had no idea what the hell she was talking about. All I could think was that me, the mandatory child abuse reporter, had broken her child's arm over going to the freaking bathroom. We were lead to our room and told to wait for the nurse and doctor.
The nurse came in and asked me if this had ever happened before. What? Had I broken my daughter's arm before? Do I look like a child abuser? Oh my God! They are going to arrest me right here! She told me to tell her what happened. I barely made it through another rendition of the events when she stopped me to say that this happens to kids all the time. Nursemaids Elbow is when the elbow gets a little over extended and some kids are more prone to it that others. She gave Nora an ice pack with Dora on it and told us to wait for the doctor.
The doctor came in after about 10 minutes, took one look at me and told me to calm down. He said he had done this to his son three or four times when he was little. He took Nora's arm that was bent at a 90 degree angle, told me to hold on to her by the shoulders, and gently straightened out her arm. I heard a little pop, and Nora exclaimed, "I'm all better now! Look Mommy, my arm works now!" The doctor looked right at Nora and said, "Next time your Mommy asks you to go to the bathroom, you better do it!" I couldn't believe it! The doctor told me that the next time this happens, I can just fix it myself. Just fix it myself? No way!
