Yesterday afternoon, we were in Tenley’s room as I was feeding her and getting the girls ready to take their afternoon naps. Hannah Gray asked if she could climb into Tenley’s crib and I told her she could. Before I knew it, she was climbing out. But almost immediately fell, head first. It was as though she did a flip over the uneven bar at the playground. She was completely vertical and it looked like she hit her head. I gasped, and jumped to get her. She laid perfectly still on the ground, just whimpering. Not even a full out cry from fear. Just quietly laying on the floor crying. We checked her head, and neck and didn’t notice anything and I tried to scoop her up and she asked us not to hold her as she laid on her back. Eventually, she finally got up but just seemed uncomfortable and sore. She was holding her arm awkwardly, but couldn’t figure out where it was coming from. She could bend her arm and raise it, although neither motion was full. Sometimes she would go back to playing, then then would just burst into tears. She kept telling us that her elbow hurt and would say, “right here” pointing. But pushing and bending didn’t bother it. So we decided to watch her and wait to see if we should take her in.
She was exhausted and ready for her nap, but only slept 30-40 minutes. Way shy of her 2 hr on the nose nap. Ethan took her to the store with him and he said she seemed okay then would just start crying in the grocery cart. We had a large number of people coming over for dinner for Peak 7 and Ethan was ready to miss it to take her to the ER. We decided to wait as we still couldn’t tell what was going on and decided to call the family doctor in the morning. So after everyone left, Hannah Gray was still disinterested in food, it was close to 10 and didn’t really seem very tired or able to go to sleep. I gave her a cup of milk that she tried to put down on the countertop she was sitting on, and just burst into tears. That was it, it was time we take her to the ER, tonight. Ethan asked Hannah Gray, “do you want Daddy to take you to the doctor, Hannah Gray?”. She looked at him and in tears said, “Yes please Daddy. Please take me to the doctooorrrrrr” and ended in heavy tears. “Okay, Daddy will take you. Tell Momma bye-bye”. And with her arm tucked in close to her side and with big heavy sob and tears welled in her eyes, “bye-bye Momma” with a quick wave and then she lunged for Daddy as though she was just anxious to go get help. We both melted and teared up at how sweet and sad the moment was. It was pitiful.
Ethan called after the x-ray and said the doctor originally was thinking she was fine and at the last movement to check, rotated her little forearm inwards. At that, Hannah Gray flinched and screamed. That was it, x-ray of the radius. The x-ray revealed a fracture at the proximal end of the radius (near that bony inner part of your elbow). They put a cast split (a fully enclosed split, but is not to be removed) on that covers her little fingers and goes all the way to her armpit until the swelling goes down and she gets a permanent cast next week at the ortho department at Children’s. She and Ethan arrived last night with her in a new pair of hospital pj’s, a cast, sling (which she had removed just before the picture and wouldn’t put back on) and a lollipop. Ethan said she kept trying to fall asleep in his arms at the hospital, then would have that falling asleep reflex which would jerk her arm and cause her to cry out in pain. She took his hand and asked him to hold her elbow into her body as that seemed to help. So Ethan kept her little elbow tucked into her side and she fell asleep where they waited for the results of the x-ray for over a half an hour.
Today she is obviously sore as the pain meds have worn off. She’s being a trooper and I’m trying to figure out how to get the lollipop out of her hair and give her a bath while keeping her arm dry. Tenley still has a nasty sinus infection+cough+ teething combo and praying that our girls heal quickly. We pray for a full night of rest for everyone tonight!
