Isn't that the way?

The Katie girl dislocated her wrist today. This has happened one other time. It is one of those things where you are holding her hand and for whatever reason, a trip or fall, slip on the ice or her dragging her feet purposefully, her full weight rests on that joint. As you hold her up her wrist slips out of joint and causes her some serious pain. Last time her wrist slipped back within an hour or so.

This time…things didn’t happen near as quickly.

Fortunately for us she doesn’t remain in constant pain, only when the joint is jostled or moved does it bother her. This allowed her to take a nap while still being out of joint. (You might wonder why we didn’t just take her into the Dr.’s office: New Year’s Day + weekend + small town = nothing open but the emergency room.)

So the afternoon passes to the evening. A little pain medicine administered. Many tears shed. The medicine kicks in and we have a new little girl who still is clinching her fingers and not moving her arm but is playing and moving around now. Her hand looks a little swollen (did last time as well) and we are getting a little uncomfortable about her situation. Beloved looks some information up on the internet and we become more worried.

Then I remember…an on-call pediatrician is available at the touch of a button. I call. The Dr. says try to keep it elevated, immobile and apply some ice. That is what we set out to do. I grab a towel and Beloved and I begin rigging up a sling to lay her arm in. This brings on a whole new onslaught of tears. Oh, not because we are hurting her by doing so but because she doesn’t want the towel on her arm.

We have her rigged up all of maybe sixty seconds when she pulls her arm out and shows us both hands and arms and all is well. Honestly I couldn’t have been off the phone more than 5 minutes and she is ‘cured’! Something about how her arm laid or the way she moved it popped things back to their correct position.

If she weren’t so little, had not been so obviously in pain we would have sworn she was faking. She was better that quickly.

I just looked at my Beloved and said, “Are we going to make it through this parenthood thing?” Then I smiled in pure relief and gave thanks.

Isn’t that they way though! Call the Doctor, mention the word hospital and instantly things are fine. I’ll keep that in mind for the next incident that comes our way. : )