The First ER Trip

Well we survived the first (and hopefully only) trip to the ER with The Phi. We had a jam packed Saturday and it started off really well. We took The Phi to a My Gym class (pic and post to follow). Then we took a family trip with my parents and Elaine to the animal shelter. Pops is thinking about adding to his dog family. Then we headed out to the beach for lunch before the main event (well for The Phi anyways) meeting and taking pictures with George (pics and post to follow). We stopped by Sambo's for lunch by the beach. We were seated outside which was nice because it was a gorgeous Santa Barbara day (are there any other kinds of days in Santa Barbara?) Well The Phi decided that she did not want to sit anymore and started to take off. We were at the end of the front patio and she started to walk towards the exit. I got up to get her and when I got to her I grabbed her hand. In typical 2 year old fashion she threw herself on the floor and I instinctively pulled her up by her hand. When we got back to the table she was crying and wouldn't calm down. So I took her to the car so that PR Dad could finish his lunch and everyone else would stop giving us mean glares from all the crying. When we got to the car she sat in her chair and I noticed that she would not move her left arm or hand. I tried to get her to wave at me or give me a high five. Then I figured out the best test. I put on the hot potato song, she smiled and sang but did not do the hand gestures. This kid lives for those hand gestures. So when PR Dad got back to the car instead of heading to the zoo, we headed to the emergency room. You can't even imagine the guilt I was feeling over this. They saw her right away and as soon as I explained what happened the very nice nurse knew exactly what it was, nursemaid elbow . They gave The Phi some pain med (vicodin) and it didn't help at all. PR Dad took her outside for awhile until they put us in a room. A few minutes later a nice Dr. came in and checked out The Phi and confirmed that it was nursemaid elbow. He said that it was common in kids her age and very easy to fix. Which of course made me feel a little better about the situation. He held her arm and hand and twisted her arm and that was it. It took about 2 seconds and within 2 minutes The Phi was completely back to normal. And we were off to the zoo to meet George. As far as ER trips go this one was a good as them come. We were in and out within 45 minutes and we left completely healed.