nursemaid elbow

i survived the bean-up-the-nose scare,
but ended up going to the emergency room anyway.

my father-in-law had invited us to a
w.d. muhammad high school boys basketball game.
we were coming into the house after the game
and i took rahmah by the wrist to lift her over the door step.
she immediately started crying.
i thought i’d sprained her wrist.
she cried and whined the rest of the night,
even in her sleep.
mom-in-law even help me put a bandage on her
which seemed to help a little bit.

she got up for fajr
and wouldn’t go back to sleep
though she kept dozing off.

in the morning her hand had swelled a bit
– from the ace bandage, i think –
and her wrist was still tender.

i tried to call a couple local pediatricians.
one recommended i go on ahead to the emergency room
because they didn’t have an x-ray machine.

i went to wellstar cobb hospital.
the wellstar system has two facilities rated in the top 100 in the US.
wellstar cobb also has a children’s ER and urgent care center.

my ER experiences have never been good ones, but
it wasn’t crowded,
we went into the nurse triage within 30 minutes,
and were able to see a doctor within an hour or so after that.

there were other mothers there with children who had
high fevers, broken arms, and the like,
so rahmah’s “injury” was rather light.

the doctor came in,
examined rahmah’s arm
while rahmah cried in both fear
– i think hospital scrubs mean shots, and therefore, pain to her –
and pain as the doctor examined and moved her arm and wrist around.
nursemaid elbow, the doctor diagnosed.

[nursemaid elbow “refers to a condition
(medically called a radial head subluxation)
in which a child’s elbow bones get partially pulled out of joint
and do not line up normally.”]

she made rahmah use the arm by bribing her with a popsicle.
the doctor held an orange popsicle within arm’s reach
and rahmah took the bait
like it didn’t hurt that bad in order for her to turn down a popsicle.

the doctor prescribed motrin for pain
and suggested that i encourage her to move the arm
and all will be well.

a nurse later came by with liquid motrin
and a nurse maid’s elbow printout.
– no more picking up fat child by the wrist, mommy –
and we were outta there.

only 2 and a half hours or so
and i was feeling blessed, alHamdullilah.
rahmah was feeling better, too.
she later took a loooong recuperative nap.

motherhood is full of lessons.
a veritable school of hard knocks, falls, scuffs, scrapes, stuck pinto beans, and pulled joints.

why don’t “they” tell you that in the beginning?
or did “they” and i wasn’t listening?