FHE IN THE ER

So while I was running around trying to clean up and get dinner ready I heard the usual squabbling between Ryder and Penelope--the all to familiar whine Penny makes when she's annoyed with her rather persistant brother. I heard the whiney complaints from Penny escalate and by the time I made it to the Living Room, Penny was in some serious tears and obviously hurt....and Ryder guiltily hanging out on the sidelines.

According to Ryder, "Penny just fell all by herself". At first Penny kept grabbing her mouth and going off of what little information I got from Ryder, I figured she fell and hurt her mouth. However, everything in her mouth seemed fine, especially given the amount our usual tough cookie was crying. After getting her calmed down somewhat, I noticed that she wasn't moving her right arm. I moved it and and checked it out and it seemed to just kill her whenever I extended her elbow. 

After calling a pediatrician who recommended the ER (the last recommendation you hope to hear. Oh, we just need to to take her to the emergency room? Okay, no problem!) we swung by the train station to pick up Phil and then made our way to the hospital that is conveniently two minutes away from our house. 

At first, the nurse and doctor both thought she dislocated her elbow (nursemaids elbow), which is something that they say is very common at Penny's age. Something that is easily fixed simply snapping it back into place and as good as new! But after "resetting" the elbow twice, Penny wasn't as good as new. She never stopped crying and she never moved her arm. After a second opinion, they took her to get an x-ray. Then, the x-ray didn't really show anything. The doctor told us that sometimes with the swelling and small size of the fracture, you can't see them in the initial x-ray. Still not sure what the exact problem was, the doctor treated her for a fracture, applied a splint with instructions to make an appointment with an orthopeadic pediatrication.

Later that night I did get out of Ryder that he had "yanked" on Penny's arm because he wanted her to follow him. So whether it was the yank or the fall that followed the yank that cause everything, I don't know.

It's all quite pleasant, really. I loved having to tell every nurse and doctor that asked me what happened, "I don't know what happened, because I wasn't in the room".  

After brave Penny got the splint on she was able to calm down and get her regular disposition back. And hopefully, everything will go okay at the specialist and we'll get her all healed up and as good as new.