Bianca was playing at the mall earlier this evening, and she was climbing on this big caterpillar thing like she usually does. I wasn’t there yet, and Jennie doesn’t know exactly what happened, since she was keeping track of two kids at once, but all of a sudden Bianca face-planted and started screaming. By the time I met them at the mall, she was starting to calm down, but she didn’t want to move her right arm. We were concerned, and thought about taking her straight to urgent care, but she had calmed down and was somewhat able to move it without freaking out. We let her choose what to do (I know, bad idea, right?) and she chose dinner first. Then, after dinner, we tried to go to the urgent care nearest to us, but they were closed. We had promised the girls ice cream, so we went there, and decided to let it go until tomorrow and see how she was doing then. Not long after we got home, though, she was just in agony, and so Jennie took her to an urgent care further from home while I stayed home with Sabrina.
Jennie called a little bit ago to give me an update, and I’m very upset. Bianca broke her collarbone and a growth plate in her shoulder. They’re at Children’s Hospital right now, where hopefully there’s an orthopedist on call. Not that there’s much to be done for a broken clavicle. That should be an interesting trick, getting her to wear a sling for 6-8 weeks. Who knows what they’re going to do about the growth plate. I worry that we messed up by not taking her in straight away – what if we made it worse?
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3 responses to “My Poor Baby”
In all honesty, if she was acting alright, chances are that you didn’t make it worse but once those muscles started reacting to the break and trying to realign properly, they spasm and that is likely what started causing her pain. With young children, it’s very hard to know whether something is broken without an x-ray unless there is an obvious deformity. Collarbones are pretty easy to break, but the growth plate in her shoulder may require more if it is completely broken through. Otherwise, it may heal on its own without problems. Just make sure the docs don’t think there’s an underlying problem that would cause a break from a short fall. Maybe she just landed wrong (arm outstretched to catch herself) but it’s definitely worth asking.
Don’t worry – you did exactly what most real parents would do. I can see myself in the same situation. You did nothing wrong and the doctors can kiss your rear end for their judgmentalness. (I read Jennie’s facebook entry) She’ll be just fine. =) Love you all!!
Thanks, you guys, that makes me feel much better. The doctors at Children’s were very understanding and didn’t blame Jennie at all. It turns out the growth plate isn’t broken – the stupid doctor at urgent care just didn’t know how to read the X-ray properly! She’s going to have to wear the sling for 3-4 weeks for her collarbone to heal.