It was Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend. Morning. Tom and Shreya were in the kitchen putting together a loaf of no-knead bread. Suddenly I hear screaming as I have never heard anyone screaming before. I rushed over to see what had happened. It turned out that Shreya had fallen off the little stepladder that she had been standing on to reach the counter. It was not a long distance to fall, but it seemed to hurt a lot. We tried to calm her down with kisses and a youtube video about primates (a current favorite) but it didn't seem to help. Rolling up the sleeve of her long sleeved shirt revealed a left arm that was swollen a lot, and looked strangely mis-shapen. We thought that she might have a hairline fracture, so we gave her some Ibuprofen and headed over to the pediatric urgent care over at the hospital.
Unfortunately, when we got there, they were predicting a very long wait -- 2 to 2.5 hours, perhaps correlated with the holiday weekend. Tom went over to the ER, around the corner, and found that there was hardly any wait there, so despite the much higher co-pay, we decided to go there.
Sure enough, we were seen there fairly quickly. But around then, the Ibuprofen had started to kick in and Shreya had stopped screaming, and the swelling had gone down. The nurse that examined her found that she was able to wiggle her fingers, and that, coupled with her claim that "Ibuprofen cannot mask the pain from a broken bone" led her to diagnose the injury as a "contusion" (just a fancy word for bruise?) and send us home with instructions to give it rest, ice and painkillers (but only every 6-8 hours). She also said that they did not like to do X-Rays on young kids.
So, having no recourse, (and I guess believing her...) we took Shreya home. Unfortunately we had received no instructions on what to do if the pain returned in under 6 hours, which, of course it did. Repeatedly. Unfortunately, Shreya's pediatrician, who is usually very responsive to being called even in the weekend, was away until Tuesday. Unfortunately, the doctor filling in for her in her absence was booked. Anyway. We were able to get an appointment for Thursday. In the meantime, we somehow got through five days. By Monday evening, Shreya learned how to hold her hand so it didn't hurt -- except when she bumped it or accidentally twisted it. She even went to preschool on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thursday dawned bright and clear (or rather, grey and windy, it was apparently the worst wind storm in a decade, but that is another story that I probably won't tell here.) We went to the doctor. She looked at Shreya's arm, scoffed at the ER nurse's claims that fractures hurt more than Ibuprofen can mask, and that young kids should not be X-ray-ed, and sent us off to do just that, saying, "It may be nothing, but let's just see..."
So we went, and this is what we saw.
Even I can see that it is broken, and not even just a hairline fracture either!
So we went over to the Orthopedic group at hospital and had a cast put on Shreya's arm. There, just as at the doctor's office, everyone expressed surprise that she had been sent home from the ER without an X-Ray.
At no time during Thursday's proceedings did Shreya act like a child with a broken arm. She was happy and smiley. She demanded stickers from the nurses. She played with said stickers. She was excited about having X-Rays (though she did whimper when they twisted her arm into the correct position for the picture). When asked what color cast ("bandage") she wanted, she was delighted to find they had red. She didn't cry at all when they put on the cast, even at the crucial and supposedly very painful moment when they shaped it, seconds before it set into rigidity (she winced, but didn't cry out.) The technicians were just enchanted with her. One of them had the idea of making her cast more festive with a green stripe to make it look like a candy cane. Then she looked sad, like she wanted to object but didn't dare. I think though, in the end she rather liked it!
Well, she liked the candy cane part anyway. Not the rigid part. On the way home, she said, "My arm doesn't hurt now, so I can take this off!" I had to explain that she would have to keep it for some time. I wonder how much of a concept she has of four to six weeks, or whether that to her mind is distinguishable from forever...
Anyway, we didn't get any pictures during the five day ordeal (I wonder why!) but here are some from later. She's a brave kid!
Unfortunately, when we got there, they were predicting a very long wait -- 2 to 2.5 hours, perhaps correlated with the holiday weekend. Tom went over to the ER, around the corner, and found that there was hardly any wait there, so despite the much higher co-pay, we decided to go there.
Sure enough, we were seen there fairly quickly. But around then, the Ibuprofen had started to kick in and Shreya had stopped screaming, and the swelling had gone down. The nurse that examined her found that she was able to wiggle her fingers, and that, coupled with her claim that "Ibuprofen cannot mask the pain from a broken bone" led her to diagnose the injury as a "contusion" (just a fancy word for bruise?) and send us home with instructions to give it rest, ice and painkillers (but only every 6-8 hours). She also said that they did not like to do X-Rays on young kids.
So, having no recourse, (and I guess believing her...) we took Shreya home. Unfortunately we had received no instructions on what to do if the pain returned in under 6 hours, which, of course it did. Repeatedly. Unfortunately, Shreya's pediatrician, who is usually very responsive to being called even in the weekend, was away until Tuesday. Unfortunately, the doctor filling in for her in her absence was booked. Anyway. We were able to get an appointment for Thursday. In the meantime, we somehow got through five days. By Monday evening, Shreya learned how to hold her hand so it didn't hurt -- except when she bumped it or accidentally twisted it. She even went to preschool on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Thursday dawned bright and clear (or rather, grey and windy, it was apparently the worst wind storm in a decade, but that is another story that I probably won't tell here.) We went to the doctor. She looked at Shreya's arm, scoffed at the ER nurse's claims that fractures hurt more than Ibuprofen can mask, and that young kids should not be X-ray-ed, and sent us off to do just that, saying, "It may be nothing, but let's just see..."
So we went, and this is what we saw.
 |
| R (photo taken from below) L |
So we went over to the Orthopedic group at hospital and had a cast put on Shreya's arm. There, just as at the doctor's office, everyone expressed surprise that she had been sent home from the ER without an X-Ray.
At no time during Thursday's proceedings did Shreya act like a child with a broken arm. She was happy and smiley. She demanded stickers from the nurses. She played with said stickers. She was excited about having X-Rays (though she did whimper when they twisted her arm into the correct position for the picture). When asked what color cast ("bandage") she wanted, she was delighted to find they had red. She didn't cry at all when they put on the cast, even at the crucial and supposedly very painful moment when they shaped it, seconds before it set into rigidity (she winced, but didn't cry out.) The technicians were just enchanted with her. One of them had the idea of making her cast more festive with a green stripe to make it look like a candy cane. Then she looked sad, like she wanted to object but didn't dare. I think though, in the end she rather liked it!
Well, she liked the candy cane part anyway. Not the rigid part. On the way home, she said, "My arm doesn't hurt now, so I can take this off!" I had to explain that she would have to keep it for some time. I wonder how much of a concept she has of four to six weeks, or whether that to her mind is distinguishable from forever...
Anyway, we didn't get any pictures during the five day ordeal (I wonder why!) but here are some from later. She's a brave kid!
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