Emergency Room Visit

(Don't panic - not for me or our growing bean sprout).

Ayva and I were playing this morning and she was crawling all over me so I grabbed a hold of her two hands and was swinging her backwards to which she was responding with a fantastic grin when all of the sudden her face changed and she gave me this look of "how could you - your own daughter!", dropped to the floor holding her arm and began to scream. In walks awful pangs of guilt and I am left wondering "what just happened?!". Ayva is very upset for the next hour at which point she proceeded to pass out in my arms and sleep for the next hour. Bruce is fairly relaxed but I am not. When she wakes up and still seems to be in such a terrible amount of pain, we decide it's time to head to the emergency room.

When we arrive she is still whimpering like a beat dog and I carry her in, cradled in my arms, looking very pathetic, and explain that we need to see a doctor, my daughter is in an enormous amount of pain, we think there's something wrong with her arm because she hasn't moved it since the incident.

"uh huh, yes, and how did she hurt her arm then, Dear?"

"ah, well - ruff housing with me, Mam"

"Hmmm...(sceptical child beater face)...I see. Take a seat then and we'll be right with you."

I'm pretty sure the nurse took in the bump on Ayva's forhead and the fresh scratches down the side of her face (she had a cat run in this morning...!).

We sat down to wait. Naturally, as all children do when they're brought into the emergency room by their frantic parents, Ayva begins to perk up. Then she crawls off my lap and starts waving at the passing cars (with her good hand). She proceeds to cradle the sore hand - but that's a marked improvement since every time Bruce or I went near it she started to scream. Bruce and I start to giggle as she starts wandering around the emergency room, cradling her arm, and looking at all the other patients like "what's up with you?" The nurse flashes us a "it's not a laughing matter when you abuse your kids" look. We put our heads down and went back to our trashy waiting room magazines (like that would somehow make us look like more respectable parents!)

After about an hour they finally called us in and the nurse ushered us into the kids room, at which point we commented to Ayva - "you've been in here before, haven't you love?".

"Have you really? (So you beat your children often then do you?)" asks the nurse, arching her child abuse eyebrow, as we quickly start stuttering out a story about food intolerances, and a colic reaction.

Once we explained what had happened the nurse looked quite relaxed, stating "I think I know what it is, it's quite common for children this age to dislocate their elbow." (DISLOCATED HER ELBOW?!?) Before we even register what she's done, Ayva is in tears, and the nurse is dusting off her hands stating that she'll return in 15 minutes to check on us but that Ayva should be fine and using her arm again in minutes.

Well I'll be damned, that's exactly what happened. Ayva was fine within a few minutes, wrapping her (both!) arms around Bruce's neck for a hug and then jumping off the examination bed to deliver the same to me. Fine. She was absolutely fine. It was as though it had never happened and she hasn't mentioned it since.