An emergency evening.

Daddy here, recounting the events of this evening. It all started when I got home from work...

Looking through the window of my house I see my loving daughter, sitting in Mom's lap smiling at me through our living room window. She looks pretty excited to see me. It's a hallmark moment. Then I get inside and the shrill of my daughters scream indicates I misread earlier signals. Moments before I came home, she had been sitting on the kitchen counter and she finally did what both parents worried she might someday do. She fell.

Quick math: 3 feet + 40 lb child + landing on her wrist = emergency room.

Time for a family trip, we pack some books and some snacks that would have to do for dinner and headed for emergency.

Draya was scared to go and cradled her forearm though all of this. She has never been a fan of the emergency room and was resisting the trip. We relied on an emergency tactic and promised the sweet empty caloried candy of McDonald's and we were out the door.

Over the next little while she had 3 x-rays taken, received a pooh sticker and was terribly good as she sobbed and sniffled. Much better then the cry fest she had when she had hurt her knee last summer. We held her, cradled her, held a bag of ice over her slightly swollen wrist, and read to her.

3 hours later she hops off my lap, completely changes gears and goes to play with the toys they had in the waiting room. She's fine. Just fine. She has a full range of motion in her wrist and she's back to her usual self. Ker and I look at each other, shake our heads and head to get a rather late dinner. Kids... go figure.

The wrong kind of exciting night

So Draya & I had a bit of excitement here last night, and we went on an unexpected outing. Daddy was working late. Draya & I were dancing to 'Happy Day'. I was holding her by her 2 hands and swinging her. There was a pop. Draya was crying and holding her right arm. I thought for sure I had sprained her wrist! I looked up sprain care in my first aid book and tried to put ice on it. She wasn't overly cooperative. I called health link for advise. She watched Treehouse. After 30-40 min on hold I spoke to a very nice nurse. When I tried to inspect Draya's arm for her Draya howled. There was no swelling or discolouration but she was obviously hurting. The nurse suggested that I take Draya to the Emergency Centre on 50 st and 140 ave. I didn't even know that there was one there. It 's a very nice facility. I bundled Draya into her snow suit, with her sore arm tucked inside, and off we went. All the way there she alternated back & forth between singing 'Wheels on the Bus' with me and whimpering. The staff at the medical centre saw us fairly quickly - there were only 4 people ahead of us. We were put in a little room and then they took us for an x-ray. While the technician & I were taking a wailing Draya out of her sweater and aligning on the equipment there was another pop. Next thing you know she has stopt cradling her arm and she's sucking her thumb as usual.
The doctor, who was also very nice, said it was a classic case if nursemaid's elbow. He showed me how to pop it back into place if it ever happens again and gave Draya juice.
It was 11 pm when we got home and went to bed. Daddy got home from work at 11:30.