Broken?

Emma fell from the "logs" of a flower bed today.  She said it happened so fast that she didn't even have time to catch herself.  (This happened at a friend's house & I wasn't there)  She landed on her whole left side (shoulder, elbow, & a scrape on her belly).  She said that her elbow immediately hurt:(   We could see some swelling at the back & side of her elbow.  I didn't think it looked that bad, actually.  Being a Friday afternoon, I made the decision to take her for an x-ray, just to be safe.  I didn't want her hurting all weekend if it turned out to be broken (which I really didn't think it was).  But with the guidance of the Holy Ghost, I was prompted to call our doctor's office. I knew the doc wasn't in, but I felt compelled to call anyway.  I explained what I needed & the secretary told me about West Sound Orthopedics in Silverdale.  She'd never been there but had heard from many people that their experience was much better than the hospital's urgent care.  She even gave me the phone number.  I called immediately & found that they closed within the next 45 minutes.  Needless to say, I SPED all the way there, hoping that I wouldn't get pulled over.  We made it with 10 minutes to spare & no ticket:)  They got her in quicker than any ER has (within 10 minutes)!  I highly recommend them for any future broken limbs.

They didn't waste any time & did the x-rays.  Within another 5 minutes Dr. Duff came in.  The x-rays were right there on the room's computer screens.  He showed me how her joint looked with fluid all around it.  Not a good thing, he said.  He showed me Emma's 2 growth plates at the joint end of the upper & lower arm bones.  They were open (which just means that she's not finished growing yet).  Pretty cool stuff:)  But then he said that because of the fluid around the joint & the area of the injury being right at the growth plates, any fracture that there could possibly be wouldn't show up on an x-ray for 7-10 after the initial injury occurred.  Even in full grown adults, that area won't show anything for the 7-10 days.  So this means that they treat Emma as if her elbow IS broken by putting her in a "half-cast".  She's not to remove it at all.  She will return in 10 days for another x-ray.  IF it shows it is broken, they'll remove the half-cast & put her in a cool colored hard cast.  If it's not broken, no harm will have been done by putting her in a half cast to immobilize it for healing.  

Emma's pretty sore.  Anything heavier than a piece of paper that she holds in her left hand hurts her elbow.  She has to wear a sling to help support her arm, too.  And to top it off, we got our new trampoline this morning and she says it hurts to jump:(  3 days ago she had an ingrown toe nail removed.  This just hasn't been a very fun Spring Break!  Hopefully she'll be able to sleep tonight.  

Bummer deal Emma!