Living With Houdini

First, the "official" story...we were at my parents' house this weekend for my birthday, and on Saturday morning, Bells was climbing all over the dining room chairs (she's a climber). She started to slip and ended up falling on her shoulder and side. She cried the usual amount for a minor fall (she can be a drama queen) and moved on with her day. Nothing seemed to be the matter...she favored it at times, but nothing too serious.

The main indicator that something was hurt was her reaction whenever we tried to pick her up under her arms. She would yelp and grab her neck. I know that seems like something is obviously wrong, but really, she would always get over it very quickly, so it seemed like she was just a little sore from her fall earlier.

We had dinner on Saturday night with a family friend who used to be a doctor and he was the first to suggest a broken collarbone. He didn't examine her, but he did suggest that I...wait for it...push on her collarbone! I told him that he was more than welcome to push on it himself, but I was not going to push on it when I had no idea what I was feeling for. Even then, we all decided that it was probably just bruised and she was not reacting strongly enough to have any broken bones. (stupid us!)

After church on Sunday morning, we had another friend who is a Fire captain and EMT look at her, too. Her was coming off a 12-hour shift, but he looked at her playing and said it looked like she was too mobile for a break and she probably had pulled a muscle in her neck. Steve and I decided to wait until we got home to take her into urgent care.

We took her in on Tuesday night and she received full x-rays, etc. The doctor said that , yep, she had fractured her collarbone! Oh my goodness! We were a little incredulous and felt really bad for letting her suffer for four days. I guess we couldn't really have done anything. The doctor had her fitted with a small sling and then wrapped her arm in an ace bandage to keep it tight to her chest.

Which brings me to our little escape artist...

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This is how she's SUPPOSED to look with her arm wrapped. Well, not her face, but her arm and body. I know she looks miserable, but she's just being ornery in this picture and didn't like the fact that I was taking her picture. She pretty much reacts like this anytime I pull out the camera.

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Here she is, all wrapped up with her sweater over her left arm to keep her from messing with it. She is sitting in her new booster seat, which she loves, and coloring contentedly like a big girl!

And this is what I walked in on this afternoon. We hadn't put her over-shirt back on after naps and she managed to get her entire arm free! The ace bandage was still wrapped around her waist like a weight belt. I re-wrapped her for the FIFTH time today and let her go play...