A Trip to Urgent Care

We just got back from Urgent Care. And with a much happier boy than a short time ago!

Tonight when I went to pick up Owen from daycare, Randi told me that Owen fell going into the house from the garage. She noticed later that he was favoring his left arm. She asked him if she could look at it and he started crying. He had a sliver in his palm and he didn't want her to touch it. He still wouldn't use his left arm for the rest of the time there.

Scott and I tried to take a look at it at home and he would still cry everytime we moved his arm. Luckily we got the sliver out, so we thought he'd get better. Later, we noticed he was still favoring his arm. So we talked about going to Urgent Care, but Owen said he wanted to take a bath. So we got his bath ready hoping that would make him feel better. Not much changed and he put both hands on the bar in the shower, stretching our his arms, but started crying. That was our final decision to head to Urgent Care.

Owen was very good with the dr. He let the nurse take his temperature and listen to his heart. Then the dr. came in and looked at his head and felt his arm. He didn't notice any swelling either, but mentioned that he thought it was Nursemaid elbow. He said that a ligament in the elbow is a little looser in kids under 3. This causes the three bones that connect at the elbow to become 'disconnected'. The radius bone (which provides arm rotation) is slipped out of the socket. He said that he just needed to try to bend Owen's arm up and feel if the ligament popped back into place. If that was the case, then he'd be better (basically instantly!). Sounded like a good plan to us! The dr. said that if that didn't work, then he'd have to take an x-ray. He prepared us that he'd cry when moving his arm up and for about 5 minutes afterwards.

Everything happened just as he said and he told us he felt the pop when moving his arm up. So he excused himself from the room to let Owen settle down (which didn't take long thanks to Daddy's quick thinking). Then the Dr. came back in with 3 stickers...Thomas, Percy and James (How appropriate!). The dr. made him grab each sticker with his left hand. Soon he was able to use his arm just fine. He even gave the Dr. a high-five (with his left hand) on the way out. He is using his arm just fine now that we are home and he is back to his normal self.

That was the best co-pay we've paid in a long time!