Monday, January 17, 2011

Nursemaid's Elbow

Or in other words, a dislocated elbow joint. According to the doctor we saw this morning, they called it "Nursemaid's Elbow" originally because children would get this injury when their nursemaid's yanked on their arms to pull them along. In fact, it's the most common childhood orthopedic complaint, and happens all the time with children usually between the ages of two and five years old. Part of the reason it's so easy to injure the elbow area on a young child is because of the way their bodies are growing and changing. As they get older, the ligament strengthens, so it's very uncommon to have a partial dislocation of the elbow after age five.

In any case, it's easily treatable and our doctor was able to manipulate Ethan's arm back into place in just moments. Within half an hour, he was moving his arm around without crying out. Within an hour, he was climbing all over the house like our favorite little monkey. It happened yesterday evening when we were all walking together, hand in hand; usually, we swing him together while we're walking, and that's a very typical way to get this injury. This time, I had actually just let go of his right hand when he sort of dropped his body to the ground, as if he was expecting to have us lift him up. That sudden movement was all it took. So our poor boy suffered through the night with his owie, calling for mom every few minutes, and this morning we took him in to get fixed up. Now, he keeps saying "all better" and even "thanks, doctor!" while he scoots and jumps and clambers around the place. That's my boy. ;)

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