Early Fright Night

We had a major scare last night. I took the kids grocery shopping and was unloading the car and kids in the dark. Ivan didn't want to get out of the car, so I let him play in it while I went for more loads of groceries. Dominique was patiently waiting in the house with the two pets right inside the door. As I got the last load, I told Ivan it was time to get out of the car. By this time, he was in the driver's seat and really didn't want out. So I took his hand and pulled him out. As we tried to make our way in the house, he squirmed and pulled and threw fits on the end of my arm, but I didn't let go knowing that he would possibly make a run for it in the dark and I had groceries in and out of the house and the baby in the house (Brian was at a neighbor's house). As I tried to get Ivan in the house, the cat made a run for it. When I'd caught her and got back to the house, Ivan was still throwing fits about the car and "Snaynay out". But then he wouldn't calm down. He kept crying and then pointed at his hand dangling at his side. I suddenly realized that he could be hurt and immediately felt horrible. He was so inconsolable it was hard to tell what if anything was hurt, so I started putting away the groceries while I watched him. Brian came home and I said I think I hurt Ivan (he gave me a look of what have you done to our son). For the next hour or so, I got groceries up and fed Ivan cookies and made him tea and we watched.

He wasn't using his left arm or hand, he wouldn't pick things up with it and cried if we touched it. We asked him where it hurt and he just said "no" for everything. It wasn't discolored or swollen or sticking out at weird angles. Brian gave him his bath and we debated a trip to the emergency. I gave Ivan some children's tylenol and while it made him act more normal, at times laughing and playing, he still wasn't using the arm and didn't want anyone else to touch it either. We called his doctor. All the while I'm thinking I've crushed the bones of his hand (how much pressure would that take? I was holding him tightly), or dislocated his shoulder or something horrendous. I was thinking how his first injury was by his mom! How horrible is that? I'm wondering if I'll get interrogated at the hospital: do you usually yank on his arm? do you spank him? CPS wants to know. Meanwhile I'm talking to a lady at the hospital who is typing my information into a computer. The first aweful telling of our fateful event. She misunderstands and asked if he got his hand slammed in the door (no, that would be so horrible, I can't imagine his hand being smushed in a door, but then, that happens all the time and wouldn't really be my fault).

The doctor calls and while I feel like slime under a car seat, he calmly says that it's probably his elbow that has popped out. I said I thought it was his wrist and he replies that it's usually the elbow for something like that (USUALLY- there was nothing usual about it for us, but I was somewhat reassured that he'd heard of this before and wasn't screaming into the phone saying "how could you drag your screaming child by the arm, arms are fragile, hands are fragile and his will never work the same again" or some other devastating words). He starts describing the procedure to pop the arm back in place and then it dawns on me that he's telling me this for ME to do it! He said it's so easy to do and would be a shame to have to go all the way up to the hospital to do it, not to mention the doctor there may not know what it is. He instructs me to place Ivan's hand palm up and bend his arm so that his palm touches his shoulder. He warned me Ivan would scream, but should be using the arm shortly and he'd call me back to make sure it worked. So I did it, several times, just to make sure. Ivan did scream, but not as bad as when I told him to get out of the car, or when I told him there were no more cookies. So I thought that was a good sign. Sure enough, within minutes Ivan was using his wounded arm and hand again, throwing things and running around the house thinking this was so great that his parents were letting him stay up past 11pm and eat cookies with tea. I could have hugged the doctor when he called back, except that's a little hard to do over the phone. I couldn't believe that he was able to help us over the phone, that Ivan was ok and that I'd gone from bad mom to ok mom. We were so relieved and thankful to the Lord that Ivan was back to the lively, fun and strong toddler he is. In a moment our night had gone from lovely to tormented, and just as quickly from racked with pain to celebratory.

Of course in hindsight I can see that I could have put the groceries down and picked him up, but there are other times when there is no other recourse, like when he throws a fit half way across the street with Dominique on my one hip and him holding my other hand. I can just hope that this will make him think before trying to twist away from me like he did and pray that he'll be protected from all harm, accidental or otherwise.

I won't make you retell your worst moment as a parent, but you could tell us about your first bad injury. Have you been hospitalized before? Had stitches?