When I was in college, I attended a formal dance located at the local race track. It was a crazy night filled with me walking across a slippery (beer induced) dance floor, falling on my ass and tearing ligaments in my thumb. At the time, I had no idea what I actually did, but I knew it REALLY hurt. I had to fake it cause the security guards on duty wouldn’t think I was a drunk ass sorority girl, (even though that’s EXACTLY what I was.) (Well, that and the floors WERE slippery. I SWEAR!)

So, next day, I drive my sorry little ass to the emergency room to get checked out. While waiting to be seen, I saw a little girl and her grandmother in the stall next to me. She had hurt her elbow. Somehow, someway, I got the conclusion that the grandmother had pulled on her arm too vigorously and the elbow came out of socket.

Little did I know, this memory would come back and visit me while I was back home in Oklahoma just last month.

Most of our recent trip was spent in Tulsa. Most of my family lives there (besides my bro and his family who are in OKC) and are able to house our larger clan for long periods of time. Prior to my weekend down at my alma mater, we all spent an evening together at my aunt and uncles house. They share some 30 acres with two other couples. They built their house right off of a small pond and house several horses in their barn. It’s a magical place to be.

I was busy following Hola around the property towards the end of this day. My uncle suggested I take a load off and sit down and drink my beer while he watched over Hola until dinner. Hola continued to wander and made his way towards the garage and my uncle followed. Not long after, Hola began crying and my uncle yelled from afar, “he’s fine!”

I thought nothing of it and continued to catch up with one of my cousins, but Hola didn’t stop crying. He just wandered the driveway in utter tears making his way over to where we were. I thought he had had enough of the day and was overtired. I picked him up and walked around with him. Didn’t do much good. I got out my Ergo carrier and took off down the road hoping he’d pass out from the relaxing walk.

All I felt while we were on the walk was his legs squeezing my hips ever so often. Later, I realized he was in physical pain somehow, someway. We spent the next THREE hours with a crying toddler, even treating an imaginary wasp sting on one of his elbows. He really calmed down while we were icing it, but the cold ice distracted him from the original pain. I carried him around the rest of the night. He was better in there. If I tried to take him out, he’d burst into louder hysterics.

I stood throughout dinner, eating at the kitchen island while the rest of the family enjoyed fine wine, steak and salmon around the dining room table. It’s not like anyone else could do any better, so I didn’t mind the burden. (It reminded me when he was a newborn, in the sling. Eating around this large mass in front of me.) I just wished I knew what was wrong with him, so I could help.

Then that trip to the ER long ago dawned on me. All my uncle had said while they were in the garage was that they were walking hand in hand and Hola tripped and went down to his knee, no real fall. BUT, he had been holding onto his hand the entire time.

I then laid him down on the bed. Tears rolled down the sides of his face. He took one hand, crossed over his body to wipe off a tear from the opposite side. THERE. I saw it. He wasn’t using his left arm. AT ALL. I put a small shoe near that same arm. He took his other hand and removed it. The hurt arm had been the one that was hanging down low in the sling, immobile. Even while we iced the hell out of that other elbow, that arm still didn’t move.

It seems SO obvious, yet it wasn’t for such a long time.

Luckily I was with my family when it happened. I then followed my cousin back to his house. He put his twin boys AND Rt down for the night while his wife and I took Hola to Urgent Care, or the “Doc in the Box” as we call it. It was 9p.m by this time and we were really worried about a long wait. The place did close at 10p.m., so the wait wasn’t much more than half an hour. Thank GOD.

Moments after I told the lovely doctor the story and my assumptions, she held Hola’s hand in one hand and her other held his elbow. She began to lift up until she reached a 90 degree angle. Right then, she felt two CLICKS and that was that.

3 minutes later I was putting his pajama top over his head with his arms high in the sky and he didn’t even flinch. He was cured in an instant.

It’s called nursemaid’s elbow or babysitter’s elbow. When the elbow is twisted slightly/pulled out of socket it pinches on a nerve the whole time it is “out.” Poor, poor Hola. We couldn’t help him for so long. He was a trooper, I have to say, for going through that entire ordeal without losing his shit. He was very much in pain, but you could just see it in his eyes. He was trying SO hard not to feel bad.

So, now you know. BE CAREFUL when you are walking hand in hand with your younger children. One weird twist and simple fall could make for a quick and painful trip to the doctor’s office.

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