casting call

Well another first for out family this week. Isabelle has a cast.

The back story is that Isabelle has been having chronic Nurse Maid's Elbow, meaning her elbow comes out of socket easily. It's been going on about a year now. The first time it happened we didn't notice it right away, she wasn't crying but we all of sudden realized that she was not using her right arm after having rough housed with the big boys on the floor, we watched her awhile, called my mother-in-law (a nurse practitioner at a pediatric office and a darn good one) who said that it was likely nurse maid's elbow and if we took her in they would re articulate it, we took her to urgent care, although by the time we got their it was already back into place...apparently putting the straps on her in her car seat is likely what put it back in place. The second time, knowing right away what was going on we took her immediately, but again she was using it by the time we got there. This time the doctor told us that if it happened more than 6 times over a year time period we would probably be recommended to see a orthopedic doctor.

Well, we let it go a but longer than that, hoping it would go away on it's own. We (meaning Adam) learned how to re articulate it ourselves, and whenever it happened we (meaning Adam, thankfully he was always home) would put it back in without a hitch. It was painful for her when it got pulled out, painful to get it put back in, and painful for us to have to continue hurting her in order to make her better. When, in the last month, it started happening to both arms more frequently we decided it was time to see a specialist.

Thankfully, having a mother-in-law in the pediatric field, we knew what to expect when we got there. They took x-rays, and then recommended the cast for 3 weeks to see if that would heal her muscles and ligaments around her elbow so that this would no longer happen. The doctor says it works great and has had all of his patients have success with this method.

Thankfully Isabelle is a trooper, she LOVED the x-ray process, she wanted to go back in and get some more "pictures" taken. She wanted an orange cast, although I tried to persuade her on pink or purple, she insisted orange would be the color...she loved getting it put on, just not the staying perfectly still part, and she has not had one hitch with it on. She's climbing ladders and pushing strollers, and whacking her brothers all the same as she did (although now the whacking part hurts the boys alot more).

We do enjoy the "firsts" in this family, but it seems lately we have had too many "firsts" that we didn't want to have. surgeries and casts are really the kind of thing to get excited about, but they will be remembered forever.