well diane called me at work tuesday morning because danielle had a sore arm after jumping off a chair, not a high chair, not a kitchen chair, but a kid's little yellow plastic chair. i guess she landed on her arm and then it started to swell. i didn't know what to do when diane called to tell me about it - danielle wasn't crying, she could move her arm some, she said it hurt, but she wasn't crying. diane and i were at a loss, neither one of us have had to deal with broken bones before so we didn't know what to look for. diane put ice on it and then said she'd call in a little while to let me know danielle was doing. well then danielle was acting normal, playing and joking and eating, but she said it still hurt. luckily, one of diane's neighbours is a chiropractor so she asked him what he thought. dislocated, maybe? so we need to bring her in. i wasn't thinking when i left work, i was still signed on to everything, left my desk with stuff i was working on - thinking i'd back before the end of the work day. it couldn't be broken, we wouldn't be at hospital long. yeah, right!

first we go in a room where the nurse checks out danielle and asks her questions, then we get moved to another room. we wait there until they come get danielle to escort her to xray. she thought taking a picture of her arm was cool. she was hoping she'd get a chance to see the pictures of her arm. then we went back to the room to wait for the doctor. imagine my surprise when he comes in after looking at her xrays and telling us that danielle has a broken elbow! so they moved us to yet another room where the doctor came back to put her arm in a splint and said that we'd have to go see the "bone doctor" in grand forks. it hurt danielle when they were putting the splint on, but she was being tough! she didn't care for the sling they put her arm in though, especially when they said she'd have to keep it on til she saw the doctor the next day. they gave her prescription for tylenol with codeine.

danielle didn't wake up that night, but she was restless. so she didn't have any meds till yesterday morning, we gave her her dose and then a little bit to eat. she started saying she was going to be sick and sure enough.... she tried nibbling on a few things but nothing would stay down. when i called the hospital to see what i could give her instead, they said it was the codeine, it's hard on the stomach. she was still throwing up on the way to grand forks. fun... i even missed my exit because i was trying to help danielle open the bag - poor thing was having a hard time managing with one good hand : )




so then we're at the valley bone and joint clinic, chantale is striking up a conversation with EVERYONE... "what's your name?" and usually they wouldn't realize she was talking to them, so it was like a loop of "what's your name?" "what's your name?" "what's your name?" until they would turn their attention to her LOL



all the doctors and nurses there are super nice. a VERY busy place! dr. thompson is her doctor, he showed us where the break was and said it's aligned pretty good but you could see one part where it was jutting out slightly, he said that should not cause any problems though. he explained a few things and that we'd have a few trips ahead of us. luckily we'll be able to do the re-xray in a week in roseau and they'll send the pictures to the clinic in grand forks for her doctor to take a look at them there. we'll be going back to grand forks in three weeks when she'll likely have this cast removed and have a new one put on for another three weeks. after that, danielle will need "parental supervision" for a while. LOL.


ben came and wrapped her arm in a full arm cast, he enlisted me as his nurse - good thing we had a good patient or i might not have done so well : ) he's a super nice guy too - gave us some tips on taking baths, etc. since he'd been through it last year when his little guy broke his arm. i gave guy a call when we were done. he was in grand forks for work and he took some time off to join us for lunch. we went to boston pizza - but in the states they call in "boston's - the gourmet pizza" as i've been corrected.

oh yeah, dr. thompson gave danielle prescription for an anti-nausea medicine or something but i brought it back to roseau to get filled, no one had that dose in liquid. they could get it by this afternoon but in the meantime she'd be puking... so we decided to try just regular tylenol/motrin and that's been working fine. she says she's not in pain with just the regular stuff so we'll keep up with that.

flashback to when my nephew, daniel, was one and a half (i think?) and he broke his leg after a tumble from a little tykes-type playstructure - and he had to be in a whole leg cast : (

danielle appreciates the calls and emails : ) so thanks for checking on her. if you do talk to her, please remind her she needs to rest her arm and not be so active - she thinks she can still continue to do everything like usual!

5 comments

  1. Angie on 6:58 p.m., March 29, 2007

    I had that problem with my dad a couple of months ago...I think he was walking without crutches the day he got his cast. At least yours isn't old enough to constantly threaten to cut it off like Dad... Hope we see you soon so that we can sign it!

     
  2. Lisa Findlay on 7:42 p.m., March 29, 2007

    Daniel had just turned a year old when he broke his leg... just started walking. When I was talking to Danielle last night on the phone she thought I was crazy when I asked her if anyone signed her cast yet... Hugs and Kisses to the tough little cookie!

     
  3. cindyMN on 9:10 p.m., March 30, 2007

    Only a true scrapbooker would take the camera and take pic's of the xrays!! Priceless.
    Poor thing looks miserable though!! Hope she heals up fast!!
    cindy

     
  4. Unknown on 11:15 p.m., April 01, 2007

    sorry to hear about danielle. she's a trooper though she'll be ok. sure miss seeing you all, hope you are all ok. thanks for all the christmas gifts they were great. Would have called but you know how it is. Say hi to everyone for me, I'll be reading from time to time just to see how things are. later Joel

     
  5. Charissa on 12:23 a.m., April 02, 2007

    That is a total bummer!