Lydia the One-Armed Wonder

Here's Lydia's telling of what happened.  She was obviously more interested in her fries than her elbow by this time.

Now for the long version.....

Last night I went to the gym for the first time in a few weeks while Tyler was on a bike ride.  I dropped the kids off at the child care center and went to water aerobics.  It was almost over when one of the girls watching the kids came to get me saying that Lydia was crying and asking for me.  When I walked in after changing the girl said that Lydia said she fell down and was hurting.   (Later Lydia said, "I just fell off the chair" when I asked her what happened.  I think she must have fallen and put her arm out to catch herself.)  I took one look at her right elbow and knew she'd either dislocated it or broken it. There was  a definite bulge right above her elbow and the swelling got worse in the five minutes it took for me to drive home.  She also wasn't moving it at all and just kept saying, "Momma, my arm is hurting."  

After a little family prayer, Lydia and I went to the ER to get it checked out.  I got a little preferential treatment since I work there--they got us back really quickly and the X-ray tech came to get us before the nurse had even made it into the room.  Lydia was a real trooper--she hardly cried at all when we had to manipulate her arm for the X-ray.  We read books and sang a song while we waited for results.  The doc said that he didn't see an obvious fracture, but there was definite fluid around the joint which is a secondary sign of injury.  They splinted it and put a sling on her last night and sent us home.  I just got a call from the radiologist, who said that it was a supracondylar fracture with some angulation, so we have to go see an orthopedic surgeon on Monday to follow up.  I don't think it's bad enough to need surgery, but they may cast her arm. Judging by how much she likes her splint and sling already (she's tried to take it off three times this morning) a cast should be interesting.  Lesson learned--Mom exercising is hazardous to her kids' health!