Nurse Maid Elbow

So, has anyone ever heard of this?? Huh?? Especially you mothers out there?

This is another little something that you never hear about UNLESS it happens to you or your child. And it did to us, so now I share it with y'all.

Sunday morning we were getting ready for church. And as I have stated recently, Miss J has been quite the little tester of the boundaries. So while I was getting ready, I saw her sneak behind our bed (not really behind it, but the small space beside it and the wall...where she is NOT supposed to be and knows it). So I asked her multiple times to come out from there and she was not supposed to be back there.

She looked at me like I had two heads...you know that innocent "I don't speak English or understand the words coming out of your mouth right now" look!!

So I calmly walked back there to take her by the hand and "lead" her out of there. We often have to do this in order to get her to listen and follow our instructions. So this was nothing new.

As I was "leading" her away from the no zone...she decided to stop and sit down, drop her legs completely out from under her and fight me. At which point caused me to pull on her arm, harder than I normally would when "leading" her.

She started to cry...I just figured it was because she wasn't getting her way.

But then the crying continued and she wasn't able to even lift her arm up without crying and complaining. We tried to get her to make a fist...she couldn't do it. When she was eating or doing anything, she used her left hand completely and wouldn't even lift her right arm.

I got scared. I immediately thought I broke her little arm or something. I was crying through breakfast...feeling like a horrible mother. Wondering what to do and how soon to wait till we went to the doctor or emergency room or what not.

So about an hour passed, and she was still obviously in pain. We decided to take her to the Urgent care center around the corner for us (figured it would be cheaper and quicker than the ER). They were open from 7am to 6pm...on a Sunday!! Gosh, glad I don't work those hours.

So on our way there, I kept asking DH which hand it was again? Because I could see in the review kiddie mirror that she was lifting up both hands and arms and seemed to be OK. We get to the office...and she is fine. Or seems to be fine. But, we signed in and filled out the paperwork and just decided to check her out anyway.

As a mother...you begin to learn that 9 out of every 10 times you take your child to the doctor for something that may be a serious illness or what not...it isn't and you really could have waited it out and it would have gone away on its own. But is that 1/10th of the time that you go and it is something BIG and serious and you are grateful that you listened to your instinct that time.

Well this was one of the 9 out of 10 times (only 8 to go this year!!) When the doctor came in to see her...we told him what happened and mentioned that she seems fine now. He immediately said he thought it was Nurse Maid Elbow and that it is very common and see it A LOT.

Whew...that made me feel a little better. He said it actually is a dislocation of their elbow from just that right angle and pulling of their arm that is commonly done by parents. It is common in kids from ages 1-3 since their elbow is not fully developed. How many times do you see parents dragging their kids like lifeless bodies through store or what not? A lot. And I didn't even pull her arm that hard...there have been other times I thought I pulled much harder and she was fine.

So he said, normally, it will either pop itself back into place (which was Miss J's case) or if you just move the wrist side to side and bend the elbow up and back, it will often pop back into place and then they are fine. No damage. Forgotten about.

Wow...never heard of this...but is makes complete sense. Soooo...keep this in mind if you ever are "leading" your child out of a no zone and all of a sudden their arm is helpless and seems to be in major pain...you didn't break it (most likely). Just popped it out of place. I would still go to a doctor to have him fix it, if it doesn't fix itself. But know that you didn't harm your child to the point that DCFS will start watching your door on a regular basis.

Whew...good to know, huh.

So, needless to say we missed church...but that is OK. I was such an emotional wreck all weekend, that I needed the morning to catch my self up on the normalcy of life.

The wedding...it went off...well. I am not going to complain. It was better than I imagined it would be and tried my best to keep my mouth shut, not give my opinion, and not complain.

I will make a simple note that the bride and mother of the bride seemed to be much more excited about the news that we were having a boy than they were about her getting married the next day. I asked the bride if she was anxious and excited...her response..."I can't wait for it to be over!!" Seriously...that is how you feel? Alrighty then.

We also almost had a heart attack when we were at the rehearsal at church and they were talking about the walking down the aisle part. The pastor said, "OK J(my DH), now you will take the bride by her arm and lead her down..." **side note, if you didn't know, their dad passed away back in August...so it was "assumed" that DH would walk her down the aisle, though she never officially asked and just prompted him by asking if he would go get fitted for his tux...because he would be walking her down. Heck of a mature way to ask...so this was a sensitive subject already.

At that point, the bride said "No, he is not walking me down the aisle."

We all stopped, with that blank stare on our face that said WTF are you talking about crazy girl. After all this crap...he ISN"T going to walk you down???

Even her mother gave her that look and asked..."What??"

She still wasn't sure what she wanted. She might want both her mom and brother to walk her. Which would be a nice (but weird) idea IF SHE HAD TOLD EVERYONE BEFORE HAND THAT SHE WASN'T SURE WHAT SHE WANTED TO DO!!! Hello bride crazy woman.

All in all...they both walked her down the aisle, it looked beautiful, and it was a nice wedding and reception. I had quite the sugar and d.coke hangover the next day trying to keep awake until 1am. But it was fun...lots of people congratulated me and mentioned how my bump was so cute. It was nice. I will try to post a few pictures. I don't have the one with my bump yet downloaded, so you will have to wait.

So, not as bad of a couple of days as I thought it would be or it could have been. It is over now, we can relax...and just spend the next couple of months (or years) hearing what LITTLE things DID go wrong and how the family can't believe this or that. But...there is always little things that go wrong, the important thing is that the guests didn't even notice...so why stress...and it is OVER!!

Now onto the next busy month.

Here are some pics to tide you over...

Flower girl Miss J (she did great, not really smiling, but she walked down with crying!!)

The bride, mother and brother walking down the aisle.

Bride and Groom

All the ladies of the family (aunts, cousins, grandma)

Me and DH...can't see my baby bump here...but I have a pic where you can, I will post later.