Amy's Arm

As I mentioned in my previous post, Amy fell in the backyard on Sunday and broke her arm. Here are the details:
Sunday, around 7pm, Amy and some other kids went into the backyard to play. Then one of the other children came in to tell me that Amy was hurt. Amy was coming up the hill crying with a skinned knee and leaves by her mouth and holding her left arm. I got her cleaned up and let her rest on the sofa in the living room for a bit, away from all the party noise. Eventually she got up and went in the basement to play but came back later, complaining that her arm still hurt. I gave her some ibuprofen but it didn't seem to help. After the guests left Amy took a warm bath in my tub with Audrey and perked up a little. But after bath, when she was trying to put on her nightgown she cried out in pain and when we were finally tucking them in around 9pm, she was complaining and tearing up again. David and I were starting to think this was going to be more than a sprain but we decided to let Amy get some sleep and check on her arm in the morning. When she woke up, it was about twice the size of her other arm! I called and got a 9:00 appt with our pediatrician. They sent us to the new campus of Cincinnati Children's Hospital that just opened up here for x-rays. The radiologists said there was too much fluid around her elbow joint to get a clear read and wanted us to come back 10 hours later for another set of x-rays. The pediatrician wanted us to get the arm splinted or casted sooner than that and just my luck there were no orthopaedists on the schedule at this campus for Monday. So eventually Amy and I ended up at the main hospital downtown. The orthopaedist was unable to determine if there is a fracture or where it is because of the amount of swelling. He is pretty sure she has a fracture in her humerus and perhaps a fracture in her radius as well, both near her elbow. So three doctor visits later, she is in a full cast, shoulder to wrist, and she will have it removed on October 30. At that time they will take more x-rays which will hopefully reveal that everything is healed. Amy is doing really well. She was very tired and sore on Monday but they prescribed her some Tylenol with codeine and that definitely helped. Tuesday morning she slept late and stayed home from dance class but went to Kindergarten in the afternoon. She did fine at school and came home happy. Today (Wednesday) she is pretty much herself - with the exception of a big pink cast on her left arm.

So Amy - who has yet to turn 6 has pretty much used up the family limit on x-rays and hospital visits:
A barium swallow at the radiologists when she was an infant
A CT Scan to reveal a fractured skull 1 month before her 2nd birthday
A visit to a GI specialist and then an endoscope of her esophagus and stomach last year
And now an x-ray of her left arm!!