Poor Mr. Emer had a rough night. Around 6:00 pm Friday, he fell off of a kitchen chair. Now, he falls off furniture about 15 times a day, so I wasn't too concerned. Except he was REALLY upset. Usually after a nice 20 second snuggle he is ready to go again, but last night he cried and cried for 20 minutes and wouldn't relax into my arms. I honestly thought he was just exhausted and ready for bed, because instead of a 2 hour nap, he'd had a 20 minute catnap that day. So I put him to bed, and he actually fell asleep in my arms as I rocked him beside his crib. CRAZY. I haven't rocked him to sleep in over 9 months. Should have known something was wrong!
He was awake and crying by 11 pm. He was in our bed for the rest of the night, desperately trying to sleep, but waking up crying every 20 minutes. Towards morning we finally suspected that perhaps one of his arms had been hurt. When we finally woke for the day around 7:30 am, it was clear that he was only using his right arm, and his left lay limp at his side. When you picked up or touched his left arm, he would whimper and cry.
So, off to Emergency we went. The poor guy wanted nothing to do with getting out of bed, so we made up a little bed in the car. No way I was going to try and shove his arm through a 5 point harness. He was a perfect angel and didn't move a muscle on our quick drive.
After some traumatizing X-rays (I had to leave him with the X-ray tech because I couldn't stay in the room.....duh.....pregnant....), it was determined that there were no breaks, and it was likely just nursemaids elbow. While waiting for the Dr. to rejoin us, poor Emerson fell asleep in my arms on the hospital bed. So, we tried the adjustment to correct the dislocation while he slept. Obviously it was going to wake him up, but hopefully it would pop back in! Apparently after the first adjustment, 75% of cases pop back in. The Dr. did the adjustment and said he'd come back in 15 minutes to see if he was moving his arm normally. Poor tear-stained dude fell asleep again while we waited, but he hadn't moved his arm normally yet. So, we did another adjustment after 15 minutes - the 2nd time works in 90% of cases. After the 2nd adjustment attempt, there isn't much that can be done if it doesn't pop back in, except hope that it pops back in on it's own in 1-2 days. So, we went on our way back home, with a very sore little boy.
At home it didn't seem like the 2nd adjustment had worked. All he wanted to do was lie on the couch and watch TV (and if you know Emerson, you know that's NOT him!) Chris took him for a little walk outside to see if he would enjoy some fresh air and maybe wiggle his arm back into place. He was just too grumpy and tired, so back in they came.
After lunch I put him down for a much needed nap, and sent the big kids and Chris off to a church pool party. While they were gone, the Dr. from Emergency called back. Apparently another Dr. at a different hospital goes over all the X-rays and was concerned that they may have missed a small fracture in the elbow, so it was recommended we come back in to have a more detailed X-ray taken, and possibly a half-cast put on. After Emerson was up from his nap and the rest of the family were home again, I headed back in to the clinic with Emer, who was still not moving his arm.
They took a few more X-rays, but our original Dr. still couldn't see anything alarming. They decided to half-cast it just to be safe, and keep the elbow immobilized. So, poor little dude has a hard plaster backing on the back of his arm, kept in place by a couple of tensor bandages and medical tape. He was quite the sight when I brought him back home to his Daddy and big siblings!
He really is much happier and (almost) back to his normal self with the cast on. He seems more comfortable! It must feel good to have the elbow secured. He is allowed to take the cast off for bathtime, and he even moved his arm a bit in the tub - but he let me put it back on with no fuss afterwards. It's pretty necessary to have the cast ON while I change his shirts, even though he still cries during it, it's much worse without the elbow stabilized.
The little monkey is pretty frustrated with his reduced mobility (he can't CLIMB anything! That's what he spends all day doing!) but I'm sure we'll make it through the next couple weeks. (Of course, he just HAD to do this when I am about to have a newborn in the house. GAH! He now requires constant supervision and assistance!) He is repeatedly getting stuck, with his little gimpy arm lifeless beside him, unable to help himself! Thankfully he is sleeping well - last night from 7:30 pm to 6:45 am. And in his own bed :)
So we'll see how our little invalid does for the next couple weeks! I'm expecting a call from the Sports Medicine Clinic today, where he'll be seen in a couple weeks to see how all is healing. Like I won't have enough to do 2 weeks from now ;)
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