Life on the Road

Thursday (March 17) started out like any other day, and I had a long list of errands for the kids and I to accomplish…

I sat at the couch at the computer to check my email while I nursed R.T., and Jewel sat behind me and played with my hair.  Then Jewel screamed…

She had climbed up onto the arm of the couch, then fallen off into the narrow space between the couch an the end table (metal and glass, yikes!).

I quickly detached R.T. and laid him in a safe spot on the couch next to me, while calling Nick to come grab him.  Then I reached over to extricate Miss J from her landing place.

Although she was very upset, there was nothing obviously amiss.  She wasn’t bleeding, and all her parts seemed functional.  She said that she didn’t hit her head, and what hurt worst was her right arm (she seemed to indicate elbow).

I gave her some children’s Tylenol, then nursed her.  I became concerned when she sat up from laying in my lap, screamed, and clutched her right arm against her chest.

Watching her try to hold the arm still just really set off my “mom radar,” and I decided there was no harm in taking her in for an X-Ray.  Heck, we knew the pediatric ER was actually a pretty nice place! 

I called Wolf to let him know what we were up to.  We had to swing by Knaus Berry Farm anyway to drop off the sodas he was supposed to bring for a coworker’s birthday lunch, and I wasn’t too surprised to see him standing outside ready to go with us when we got there.  (Heck, when you start work at 5 am, by 11 you’re mostly done anyway!)

We made the now-familiar trek to the Homestead Hospital ER, and signed her in.  As before, we quickly received a private room in the “Speediatric” ward.  The nurse brought Jewel some liquid Motrin, as well as baby-strength Tylenol with Codeine!  Yikes!

They brought in the very cute giraffe-painted portable X-Ray machine.  The techno-geeks in Wolf and I were fascinated - it’s all DIGITAL!

But back to reality, where Jewel is screaming hysterically, and I’m being told to hold her arm “like this”… 

Then we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then, to our dismay, they wheeled the giraffe back in, declaring that they needed three views of the wrist specifically. 

These were even harder than the first set.

I’m surprised they could see anything, and the doc did indicate that they weren’t the clearest…

But they said she had a small fracture of the distal radius where it meets the wrist.  They fixed her up in a splint (cool piece that hardened after they conformed it to her body) wrapped with an Ace bandage.  We then had to follow up with the Orthopedic Surgeon.  (Luckily the insurance referrals and what-not were fairly simple.)

Lots of chewable Tylenol and Motrin to get us through until Monday (March 21)… 

The Orthopedic Surgeon was a great guy, and said he had a granddaughter Jewel’s age.

He X-Rayed her wrist, and after talking to us, her elbow.  By now she was calm, and this all went smoothly.

Guess what?  No break!

The doc said that in the ER they will always make the “better safe than sorry” call in that situation, and that the splint was actually probably great for the sprain/strain/contusions she did have.

So the splint is off, and she is much happier…

Just another week in our house.  Stay tuned, it keeps coming!