A Little Scare

I'm going to start this out by saying that James is now perfectly fine and happy as a clam. That being said, we had a little scare.

On Monday morning, I was downstairs at my parents house packing up the last of our things to go home. Mike was upstairs with a hungry James trying to placate him, so that I could finish up before nursing him. They were playing one of James' favorite games where Mike lays on his back and James walks on his belly and chest while Mike holds his hands. However, this time something happened that had never happened before. James slipped. Maybe it was the smooth dress shirt that Mike was wearing or maybe James was taking bigger steps than usual. Either way, his feet slipped out from under him too quickly for Mike to catch him and he bumped his bottom on Mike's chest and his head on Mike's waist, all the while still holding Mike's hands. James began to wail.

Logically thinking that this little bump was just the last straw for a hungry and cranky boy, Mike brought James downstairs for a little Mama time. However, when I laid him on his left side, he only nursed for about a minute before jumping off and screaming. Thinking that he might have a tender spot from his little fall, I switched him to lying on his right side and tried again. This time he gulped greedily for about five minutes, but once again jumped off and began screaming. We looked for marks on his head and peeked in the back of his diaper to see if he had a bruise on his bottom that could explain his distress. Nothing. After about 15 more minutes of screaming, none of our soothing techniques were working. We decided that it was time to take his clothes off and check him all over for any signs of injury.

I knew something was wrong when I took his shirt off. His right arm was waving all over, grasping things, and constantly going in his mouth, but his left arm was like rubber. He just let it fall down beside him and did not move it. When I tried to get him to grasp my finger, his fingers feebly curled around mine. There was none of his usual strength in his grip. Fearing the worst, we quickly bundled James up and rushed him to the Emergency Room. Thankfully, he managed to fall asleep in his car seat on the way over with the seat stabilizing his left arm, so the time in the waiting room was not too bad. However, we eventually had to take him out of his seat and he began screaming again soon after we did.

After the nurses did their initial exam, we were taken to a room to wait. We put James on his right side, stabilized his left arm, and got him to nurse somewhat contentedly almost the entire time until the doctor arrived. Once the doctor got there, he listened to what happened, quickly diagnosed it as Nursemaid's Elbow, and went to work manipulating James' elbow. After about 30 seconds of manipulation and some quick Mama cuddles, James was himself again. He was grasping things with two hands, waving both arms all over, and shoving both hands in his mouth. He was happy as a clam and began exploring his surroundings. Mike and I were so relieved.

I can now tell you that the absolute worst sound in the world is your child screaming in pain, especially when you know that there is very little that you can do about it. You just desperately want to take every bit of that pain onto yourself, so that they don't have to feel a moment of unhappiness.