Broken Wing

Last week we had our first run in (thankfully) with nurse maid's elbow.  In harsher terms, I pulled my child's elbow out of socket. 

It was definitely not on purpose, I didn't even realize it had happened. And sadly, I wasn't even doing something fun, like swinging her around in circles by her hands.  I was trying to coax her into the house from the garage so we could leave for dinner at a friend's house.  She wouldn't come in so I held her hand to lead her inside and in classic toddler form, she arched her back and pulled away from me.  And ta-da, the damage was done.  However, I didn't know at that point. 

I picked her up, brought her in, and we headed to the car.  I must have noticed something about her arm because I checked it as I buckled her in but it seemed fine.  She was crying but I was sure she was crying because she was mad that I won't let her live in the garage.  This is not a new argument for us.

Ella was able to calm her down somewhat on the way to dinner but once we got there she cried inconsolably.  Nothing would calm her down except me singing quietly to her and even that only lasted seconds.  We offered her snacks, dolls, toys, to no avail.  I was sure the distraction of her friend Madi and their dog and just being at someone else's house would help but nope.  Then we started to notice that she wouldn't move her right arm.  Our other friends arrived (this is a weekly dinner with 2 other couples and their kids) and we started offering Sadie cups and snacks and trying to trick her into moving her right hand. She would not do it.  She also wouldn't say any words or answer any questions which is very unlike this little talkative girl.  She just cried.  I have never in my life seen her like this.  So, the 6 adults went into action.

First, I called my friend who has experience with dislocated elbows and sure enough she answered the phone, assured me 3 of her 4 kids have had this happen, and after hearing the story felt sure that's nurse maid's elbow was what we were dealing with.  She told us to go to either the ER or an Urgent Care facility to have them relocate (is that the opposite of dislocate) the elbow.  But, she gave us the sage advice to call ahead and find out how long the wait would be, and ask the Urgent care if they do the adjustment to fix this so we wouldn't end up being sent to the ER after all. 

Right away, everyone went into action calling the closest ER, 2 different Urgent Care places, and googling for info. At one point an ipad and at least 4 cell phones were in use. Can I just say, I LOVE MY FRIENDS!!!  I felt so cared for in those moments.  Deciding what to do and when to do it can be the hardest part in a crisis. Having this little extension of my family hard at work to help us made it simple.  I have no idea what the other 4 kids were doing at that point but I think they were just playing quietly or watching the adults in action (or staring a Sadie and wondering why she was crying non-stop).  Regardless, they were calm and letting the parents deal with this which is no small amount of grace with small kids. There was just blessing all over this situation. Within minutes, we had enough info to decide where to go.  Our friends assured us that of course, Ella would stay with them, we nodded, hugged, and dashed out to the car with poor Sadie. 

The Urgent Care Clinic we went to turned out to be amazing.  It was brand new, super cutely decorated (because that matters somehow), and clean and there were 4 people working and no other patients.  We had their undivided attention and after 3 attempts to "pop" Sadie's elbow back in, it worked!  After the first two attempts they had us play with her and try to get her to move her arm above her head.  Well, that was NOT happening.  She was still crying, super upset by now, and still no arm movement.  She had all 4 staff people there plus Chris and me waving our arms, doing jumping jacks, pointing to the train that goes around the ceiling of the clinic, and basically making fools of ourselves trying to get her to lift her arm.  Then the doctor gave it the 3rd try. It was kind of insane how quickly she went from crying, not talking, mad, sad, and completely unable to move her arm to her normal self with one little "pop."  Phew.  We were so relieved and thanked the staff profusely and went back to dinner.

We texted our friends on the way back and saw that we already had messages from them wondering how we were.  We arrived to lots of dinner left over for us and they'd waited for us to have dessert :-)  Everyone was relieved to see Sadie back to normal from what our friend Brad called "her broken wing." We collapsed into chairs, ate and told the story of how she got fixed and just enjoyed each other for another hour before heading home.

Can I tell you how great it felt to be cared for by friends in this situation?  It wasn't super serious, but it was hectic and upsetting and I couldn't be more thankful that we were at dinner with these friends.  I feel like I'll remember the practical tips on how to deal with this ailment should it come up later.  But what I really can't get out of my mind is what it felt like to sit in a room with my child hurting and so many people concerned and doing all they could to help us get it better.  No one was distracted or doing their own thing.  No one was drawing attention to themselves or spouting off their opinions.  Everyone was single-mindedly serving us. That's humbling, and rare. And felt like real love. It was a picture to me of true, Christ-intended, Bible-preached, seldom-seen community.  When we started this weekly dinner a few months ago, I believe "community" is the word we used to describe it's purpose.  No agenda other than more, regular time together.  Well, if building "community" was the goal, we did it.  I saw it last week.