Thursday, February 5, 2009

The first broken bone in our family



We had the 1st broken bone in our family (our kids anyway). Yesterday I went to take Katie to school and the girls jumped in the van. Katie got in the backseat and was trying to rearrange car seats, while Kassi got up on the middle seat. She was hanging her arm over the seat and we are not sure exactly how this happened, but she started crying and said her arm hurt. So I took her to urgent care thinking she had dislocated her elbow, this is very common in little kids; it is called a nurse maid injury.



They took x-rays and tried to pop it back in a few times. She just kept saying it hurt. So the Dr. told me he didn't know what else to do. So he sent us home with a referral to a pediatric orthopedist. We got to see them this morning. They took more x-rays which meant more crying. The Dr. there said that Kassi had broken her elbow in the growth plate area. Then Kassi got to pick a cast color. She picked purple which she calls "boo". "Boo" is her word for blue and the only color word we can get her to say. After screaming for about half an hour the cast was finally finished. She walks around with a big smile and points to her arm and says "boo boo". She is very proud of the cast and a lot happier since the cast immobilized the elbow.

5 comments:

Stephanie Humphreys said...

She's such a cutie. That's too bad about the elbow. Do they think it will be a problem in the future with the break being in the growth plate?

Nicole Hunter said...

Poor Kassi! Sounds like she handled it very well though. She sure looks cute with her cast! Hope you heal quickly Kassi!

Kenningtons said...

Oh stink!!! This has got to be the worst thing for kids (and Mama's) to go through!! However, her "boo" cast is pretty fancy. What a brave little girl she is!

p.s. why did the first x-ray not show any break?? mysterious.....

Amy Savage said...

Poor thing! Give her a hug from us.

kristi said...

Jamie, the doctor said that a lot of times breaks don't show up soon after the injury, especially in small children. Their bones are not really close together to allow for growth (that's why they sometimes bounce but don't break anything). After some time passes the ligaments and tendons start to release a little and the bone will start to move apart which then shows up on x-rays.