If at ever a time you are thinking that you are maybe the worst parent in the world, don't...unless you are like me and cause your child to have to go to the Emergency Room! Then you have every right to think of yourself as a bad parent (at least temporarily)!
Seriously, only this would happen to me...it was just that kind of week! Kahn has been pretty sick lately with his allergies and asthma and fevers and just last week we were at the doctors and the hospital for x-rays, but for the most part, he has been feeling better this week and his fevers were gone and his coughing was down to a minimum (which was a huge improvement from his condition just a week ago). And although Tuesday was a pretty rough night with the kids both being completely tired and whiney, Wednesday (my day off) was a great day with the kids...they both were in good moods, we had a really fun, productive day, went out to eat for lunch (yes, in public), everyone took good naps (including me), dinner went smoothly and bath time went down without any bickering. It was just a good day!
But all that good day stuff abruptly ended after I put on little Kahn's pajamas. As he does every night when I turn around to grab his toothbrush, he quickly got up after I had just put on his pajamas and started to run from me on my bed. In an attempt to stop him from running, I just reached out and grabbed his arm (like I probably do most nights). As I grabbed him, he immediately fell on the bed. A second later, he started screaming. Of course, I initially yelled at him in a I-told-you-so tone of voice and told him we don't run on the bed because he can get hurt. And then I realized he was more than just a little hurt. He was in extreme pain and couldn't move his arm at all. Ugh! He cried for a while, but eventually realized that if he didn't move his arm then there really wasn't much pain. But he wasn't able to move his arm...at all! Being the medical professional that I am (ha!), I inspected his arm and decided it definitely wasn't broke, but that something had to be dislocated. I called Kahn at school and told him that he needed to come home to take Kahn to the hospital to have his arm checked out. I sure as hell wasn't taking him to the hospital...I mean, I didn't want to be arrested for abusing my son! So at 8pm, the boys headed to the hospital!
As I sat waiting for DFACS to show up at my door any minute, the doctor in the ER was able to pop his elbow back into place. He screamed hysterically for a second but once it was 'popped' back into place, he was instantly fine. Apparently, he had nursemaid elbow, a type of elbow dislocation. And according to WebMD (a very trusted medical site :-)), nursemaid elbow is very common in children under the age of 5 and can easily be done by pulling too hard on a child's arm or swinging a child by their arm. The NP at the hospital that night said it was extremely common as well and that she sees at least one case of nursemaid elbow per shift. I guess, in a way, that made me feel better, but I still felt TERRIBLE that he had to go to the hospital because of me!!! I mean, what kind of mother dislocates their child's elbow! And honestly, I didn't even pull on his arm that hard...I only reached out and grabbed his arm and I guess with the force of him running forward or maybe the angle that he fell, it just happened. But it happened, and I will forever feel terrible about it.
Thankfully he is fine now and there is not pain or anything associated with his injury. He actually wore his hospital bracelet from the night before to school the next morning (he insisted on keeping it on)--which meant all the moms at the party asked about what happened...although a few of them actually said the same thing had happened to them. Whew...I'm not the only bad mom out there! :-)
Of course, I hope Kahn learned his lesson that we don't run and jump on beds because you can get hurt (just normally it wouldn't be from your mother but from actually falling off the bed). I know I learned my lesson!
[And just to add....although sometimes we wonder why we don't and why we have taken the approach that we have with our children, we do not use physical force when disciplining our kids. There is definitely not violence in our house. This was just a really crazy outcome of a relatively normal reflex to grab your kids when they are running from you on the bed. As upset as we were when it happened, we just have to laugh about it now...only us!]
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