When Jaise was three she dislocated her right elbow. We never did figure out how that happened, but our best guess is that she and Trey (4 at the time) were fighting over something and when Trey yanked it away from her, he pulled out her elbow. Wonderful parents that we are, we didn't even notice anything was wrong for a few days. Then it dawned on us that she wasn't using her arm and she kept it in a weird position all the time. *duh* So I took her to the doctor. I left the room when the doctor and two nurses tried to reset it. (Yeah, I'm a baby about stuff like that!) The doctor was unsuccessful, so she sent us right over to the emergency room. The doctor there tried to reset it, and was also unsuccessful, so he sent us right over to Children's Hospital. Once there, Jaise had had enough of people in white coats hurting her, so she did not let them touch her. The doctor put a soft cast on it and two weeks later we took it off ourselves and everything was fine.
In May, Jaise arrived at school and had just gotten off the schoolbus, when a Kindergartener we know ran over and clung on to her leg to give her a hug. Not expecting this, it threw Jaise off balance and she landed on her left elbow. However, this wasn't the story I got. The NEXT DAY Jaise tells me she hurt herself at school and showed me her elbow. It was bloody and nasty-looking. I cleaned it and bandaged it up for her. All she said was, "I hurt my elbow at school." A couple DAYS later I notice she's holding her arm funny. I thought maybe the scab was hurting her since it was on a moving joint. I asked, "So, Jaise, how did you hurt your elbow anyway?" Well then the real story comes out. This was on Friday afternoon.... and there was no way we were getting a doctor appointment now. So we waited out the weekend. On Monday I took her in and the doctor sent us over to Children's Hospital emergency room for x-rays.... which came back inconclusive, but to be safe they put a hard cast on for 3-1/2 weeks. She missed out on several fun activities and it came off the day after school got out. You should have seen the difference in arm sizes just after three weeks. It took her a couple more weeks to get used to using it again.... but I was so glad to not have to wash her hair for her in the sink anymore!
Cutting the cast off
Prying it apart
Cutting through the inside layers