Monday, December 7, 2009

Nursemaid's Elbow

Josiah came down with a bad case of "nursemaid's elbow" last night. The definition found in Wikipedia is: "a dislocation of the elbow joint caused by a sudden pull on the extended pronated arm, such as by an adult tugging on an uncooperative child. The technical term for the injury is radial head subluxation."

Josiah was not being an uncooperative child (although he often can be) no, he was simply sitting by my side and started to slide off the couch. In my haste I pulled him up by his wrists and he started SCREAMING in pain. Poor little dude.

The orthopedic surgeon that we saw this afternoon did his best to check out Jo's elbow - but we left there at 3:30 without it being popped back into place. He told me to give it a day or two and if it wasn't better that I should take Josiah to a pediatric orthopedic. So tonight, after many phone calls, lots of tears, 2 trips to the Urgent Care (one for x-rays), lots of movies & still a crying baby boy, I finally looked up "nursemaid's elbow" on the internet. Based on what I saw he didn't need x-rays - he just needed a pediatric doctor who could pop that elbow back into place. I came out of the office and prayed for healing in Josiah's elbow, then I called my friend Kristi (who is going to Duke to become a PA) and talked with her about what I should do next. While on the phone with Kristi, Josiah fell down twice and I had to help pick him up - then two minutes after the 2nd fall (about 10 minutes after I had prayed for him) I looked up to see him using BOTH hands as he stacked up his shoes by the front door. Over the next 10 minutes I followed him around to see him using his left hand/arm as if nothing had ever been wrong! He was back to his crazy little self - climbing on EVERYTHING tonite! Praise God for his healing! I'm so glad to have my little boy back again!