Nursemaid's Elbow. Um, Yeah

So my newest medical terminology that I've acquired is, "nursemaid's elbow". What is nursemaid's elbow, you may ask? Well, let me tell you a little story.

The following story is true, the names have been changed to protect the innocent.

Dan dant dant dant.
Daaan dan dant dant daaaaaaaa!
(Dragnet theme song, in case you were wondering)

Time: early Thursday afternoon - fifteen minutes before kindergarten bus arrival.

Place: Chez Quinn backyard

Suspect: Oldest Urchin

Dant da naaaaa,
dant da nant na naaaaaaa

(Dragnet theme continued)


The oldest Urchin bursts into the kitchen where I'm cleaning up lunch and doing dishes, shouting for me to come quick.

I remove myself to the yard and observe the three year old lying in the grass crying. As I help her up, I get the fragmented and most likely, highly polished version of what happened from the eldest of the urchins.

She fell. Older urchin grabbed her arm to help pull her up. Much crying ensued.

There being no other witnesses to the altercation, I try asking the three year old- who is crying profusely. Which is actually very uncharacteristic of her. Through the tears and around the blowing of the nose I get, "Sissy pulled me."

I settle the youngest on the couch with an icepack on her arm and some tv to soften the blow and take the eldest out to the end of the driveway to put her on the bus.

When I re-enter the domicile, The crying has stopped, but younger urchin is very pale. I proceed to examine the arm. She can wiggle her fingers, though making a fist hurts, she can move it, but wails and immediately begins crying again when she bends it. There are no marks on the arm or swelling. Tylenol and liberally applied ice packs are administered.

Symptoms don't change for several hours. That evening I call the doctor's office. There are no appointment openings, but the nurse takes down the symptoms and says she'll tell the doctor and call back. Within fifteen minutes I get a call from her requesting that the subject come in immediately.

Diagnosis: nursemaid's elbow. One of the lower of the two bones in the elbow joint has come out of its socket, causing extreme pain whenever it moves. The doctor was able to pop it back in quickly and less than thirty minutes later the youngest urchin was back to her crazy rambunctious self.

And that is only one of several extremely crazy things that have happened over the past four days.

Hope things aren't quite so exciting at your house.