Angel with a "broken" wing

Well, I guess I'll start at the beginning. We're guessing on exactly how it occured since no one was in the room at the time, but here's what happened...

Kalaya was either climbing up on the table (via her high chair) or climbing down, but she slipped and fell hitting her mouth on the way down and landing on her left arm. She was covered in blood, all coming from her mouth. As I cleaned her off I noticed a large gash where that small flap of skin connects the inner upper lip to the gum line between the two front teeth. I immediately started looking up the address the to the hospital. Since our old computer takes a minimum of 15 minutes to warm up before it's usable, I called Dwight at work in Chicago, to mapquest my way to the closest hospital.

On my way, the bleeding finally stopped, but I thought I'd call our Urgent Care, and Pediatrician's office since it was on the way. When they finally patched me through to a nurse, she explained that it was a common injury and that they are unable to do stitches on that part of the mouth anyway, and that it heals all on it's own. Some what skeptical (it's a really large gash), I turned around, and went home.

The rest of the day was hard, even on Tylenol, Kalaya seemed miserable, very clingy, and screamed at the smallest touch. Her normal 1.5 hour nap lasted all about 15 mintues. I feel like a horrible mom, because I'm sure everyone of you would have been able to put it together a lot sooner than I did. But I finally noticed that Kalaya was not using her left arm, it looked like a dead arm, the way it would just hang at her side. To confirm a problem I tried moving it or touching it and yep, sure enough every time caused great pain to my sweet angel.

I called Urgent Care around 3:00 that afternoon, to schedule an appointment (no walk-ins allowed - annoying) and they couldn't see her until 6:30. One good thing about having to schedule a visit to the Urgent Care, I was able to set up a sitter for the boys. *Julie you're a lifesaver.*

You can imagine all the poking and prodding involved in the examination. My girl, what a trooper... a screaming trooper, but a trooper none the less. Doing the x-ray's was heart wrenching, but they were able to show no broken bones, just a very painful dislocated elbow (completely unnoticable by looking at her arm.) The doctor put it back in and wrapped an ice pack around it and had us wait for 15 or so minutes to see if maybe she'd start using her arm before we left the office. She didn't. In my opinion the doctor began to look unsure of the situation (without saying anything of course.) As for me I was unsure of the whole thing. Since it was near closing time they said to keep the ice pack on it awhile longer, and if she's not using her arm by tomorrow (Saturday), to come back in. Well...

It's now Sunday night and she's still not using it. Well, she'll move it occasionally, when she has no other choice, but usually cries. She won't lift up her arm, she won't clasp anyting in her hand. And gets upset if I move it around too much. I've tried all the poking and prodding to see if there is any painful reaction, but there doesn't really seem to be much (nothing like before) . That's the main reason why I've been hesitant to take her back in. Thinking maybe since her elbow was out for that many hours that it needs more time to heal. Well, I'm over that, I'm calling either her Pediatrician or Urgent Care first thing in the morning.

The sad thing is she sustained a few new injuries (scrapes on her face, and bruises on her knees), while we were out playing in the front yard. She discovered, the hard way, she can't catch herself with that hurt arm. It breaks my heart to see her in pain.

For the most part you can't tell anything is wrong. At church today, people didn't even notice her "dead" arm until I'd say something AFTER they asked about the scratches on her face.

So for now, our little angel is still flying, in spite of her injured wing. I'll keep you posted on her recovery and (if any) new diagnosis.