Trauma-Leen
We had such a nice morning yesterday; we came home from Women’s Bible Study and the kids played outside in the neighborhood. Boo took a nap, cranky boy. I was taking pictures of the back yard and talking with Bear on the phone after I had posted them. He was impressed with the landscape guy’s work and we were talking about sod.
Miss Busy came running in and said that Chels had gotten hurt on the trampoline and was screaming. Screaming! She is a tough kid, high level of pain tolerance, if she is screaming, it’s got to be bad. I hung up quickly with Bear, told him I’d keep him posted and went into Mommy Trauma Mode, MTM for short.
I got to our neighbor’s backyard and saw her sitting on the tramp with her right arm all wrapped up with a bag of ice. She had to skooch over to the edge and I somehow got her through the mesh-Velcroed opening of the safety net, well at least she didn’t fall off of it. (Ha Ha!)
I unwrapped Miss Busy’s jacket from around her elbow and saw immediately we had a trip to the ER. She said it looked like a skinny snake that had swallowed an egg. Indeed it did. Her skinny arm was bulging at the joint of her right elbow. Every move was excruciating pain. We got her inside, dressed in warmer clothes, they had been enjoying a bit of shorts-weather that afternoon.
I made quick arrangements for the 4 other kiddos and off we went to the ER. We were in pretty quickly and then sent to x-ray. After a few minutes back in the waiting room we were into an exam room and soon after that the first Doc showed up. He was waiting for the Ortho Doc to look at her x-rays.
Ortho Doc said he needed better x-rays maybe even CT scan to really see. They inserted an IV and gave her meds so they could manipulate her arm without causing too much pain. (She was still really hurting anyway.) Ortho Doc and I went with her to x-ray and he personally positioned her arm for pics.
Turns out she has a displaced medial epicondyle fracture with a fragment lodged in the joint and medial widening of the joint line. Now that all means that she broke off a piece of the bone, of her humorous, upper arm, near the growth plate and the piece was lodged in between the elbow joint.
They were going to try a closed reduction where they would try and move her arm and joint around and try to dislodge the fragment. (Ouch, sounded painful to ol’ Mom here.) They gave her some pretty strong drugs, which would kind of give her amnesia about the whole event. She could still react to the pain, but it would block her sensors from remembering it.
I was very interested in the flouroscan machine they were using, it takes an instant reading, much like an ultrasound, and shows the Docs just what is going on with the bone. Ortho Doc pulled and prodded, tweaked and twisted, then Chels started getting very agitated and was screaming, (in slow motion, but screaming none the less) I had been doing ok up until then. I sat down on the stool next the Chels’ head, then the Doc in Charge of the Floor that night, had me move over to the chair. They were holding off with Chels and giving her a bit more medication. Charge Doc saw that I was still kind of green and asked for a bed for me to lie down. He got me a blanket and had me rolled out into the hallway, down a ways so I couldn’t hear her. I hate the feeling right before you pass out. It has happened a time or two, right after delivery or during ER visits. My eyes start to unfocus, and the room tilts. I have knots in my stomach and feel like I could throw up. My skin feels tingly and my heart pounds. It took several minutes for that feeling to pass. I lay facing the hallway wall and tried to block out Chels and concentrate on the conversations around me, anything to keep from hearing her.
Some guy had a walking cast on but was telling the receptionist that he had Closter phobia and was going to cut it off. Poor guy. I concentrated on nurses’ voices and buzzers and beepers.
After about 20 minutes Charge Doc came and got me, they were done, it didn’t work and she was asking for me.
I’m stopping this for now, will continue later, house is a wreck and needs attention!!
Miss Busy came running in and said that Chels had gotten hurt on the trampoline and was screaming. Screaming! She is a tough kid, high level of pain tolerance, if she is screaming, it’s got to be bad. I hung up quickly with Bear, told him I’d keep him posted and went into Mommy Trauma Mode, MTM for short.
I got to our neighbor’s backyard and saw her sitting on the tramp with her right arm all wrapped up with a bag of ice. She had to skooch over to the edge and I somehow got her through the mesh-Velcroed opening of the safety net, well at least she didn’t fall off of it. (Ha Ha!)
I unwrapped Miss Busy’s jacket from around her elbow and saw immediately we had a trip to the ER. She said it looked like a skinny snake that had swallowed an egg. Indeed it did. Her skinny arm was bulging at the joint of her right elbow. Every move was excruciating pain. We got her inside, dressed in warmer clothes, they had been enjoying a bit of shorts-weather that afternoon.
I made quick arrangements for the 4 other kiddos and off we went to the ER. We were in pretty quickly and then sent to x-ray. After a few minutes back in the waiting room we were into an exam room and soon after that the first Doc showed up. He was waiting for the Ortho Doc to look at her x-rays.
Ortho Doc said he needed better x-rays maybe even CT scan to really see. They inserted an IV and gave her meds so they could manipulate her arm without causing too much pain. (She was still really hurting anyway.) Ortho Doc and I went with her to x-ray and he personally positioned her arm for pics.
Turns out she has a displaced medial epicondyle fracture with a fragment lodged in the joint and medial widening of the joint line. Now that all means that she broke off a piece of the bone, of her humorous, upper arm, near the growth plate and the piece was lodged in between the elbow joint.
They were going to try a closed reduction where they would try and move her arm and joint around and try to dislodge the fragment. (Ouch, sounded painful to ol’ Mom here.) They gave her some pretty strong drugs, which would kind of give her amnesia about the whole event. She could still react to the pain, but it would block her sensors from remembering it.
I was very interested in the flouroscan machine they were using, it takes an instant reading, much like an ultrasound, and shows the Docs just what is going on with the bone. Ortho Doc pulled and prodded, tweaked and twisted, then Chels started getting very agitated and was screaming, (in slow motion, but screaming none the less) I had been doing ok up until then. I sat down on the stool next the Chels’ head, then the Doc in Charge of the Floor that night, had me move over to the chair. They were holding off with Chels and giving her a bit more medication. Charge Doc saw that I was still kind of green and asked for a bed for me to lie down. He got me a blanket and had me rolled out into the hallway, down a ways so I couldn’t hear her. I hate the feeling right before you pass out. It has happened a time or two, right after delivery or during ER visits. My eyes start to unfocus, and the room tilts. I have knots in my stomach and feel like I could throw up. My skin feels tingly and my heart pounds. It took several minutes for that feeling to pass. I lay facing the hallway wall and tried to block out Chels and concentrate on the conversations around me, anything to keep from hearing her.
Some guy had a walking cast on but was telling the receptionist that he had Closter phobia and was going to cut it off. Poor guy. I concentrated on nurses’ voices and buzzers and beepers.
After about 20 minutes Charge Doc came and got me, they were done, it didn’t work and she was asking for me.
I’m stopping this for now, will continue later, house is a wreck and needs attention!!
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