Our Little Emma's Owie

If you follow me on Snapchat or Instagram, you've seen that our little Emma Brooke has her first major boo boo and has a full cast on her left arm. Poor baby! I feel so terrible, but I'm so thankful that she's ok! Thank God for children's resiliency, she has been such a sweetheart and her cast hasn't even slowed her down any. 

It all started with a wooden stool, which has since been thrown out. Ellie has a stool that she uses in the kitchen to help us bake and wash her hands. Emma was playing next to it (Ellie wasn't on it or using it at the time) and started to pull herself up on it when it fell over onto her hand. She cried really hard, but for less than a minute and that was it. I check her fingers, legs, etc and couldn't really see anything so I went to work and took her to daycare. When we came home that night her finger was swollen and bruised, but it wasn't bothering her. She could make a fist, she was using it to grab toys and crawl, putting all her weight on it, and she didn't wince when we squeezed it. We decided to just watch it and see what happens. 

The swelling went down, but the top of her finger was still swollen so we brought her in to have it checked out. The doctor did all of the same "tests" I did and thought we should get x-rays just to be safe. She sent them out to orthopedics who said there was a break and to come in the next day to have a look further. So we went in and saw the doctor, took more x-rays, and he wasn't sure what to do. He said that her body would probably fix it on it's own, but for adults they would need surgery. He went back and forth about what would be best and asked us to sit tight while he took the case to a meeting for other doctors to review. He called us late that night to tell us it was a tie and he still had mixed feelings about the best route to go since she's so young. He said if it had happened to Eleanor he would know exactly what to do, but Emma is so young he was worried about making the right decision and referred us to a baby orthopedic doctor to see the next day. 

The specialist was amazing and I'm so glad we were able to meet with her. We talked about how it happened, how she's been, and she was saying how tough she is. Anderson strong my dad would say. She said that babies bones go overlooked all the time since they heal so quickly and are unable to tell us if it's bothering them. She said we had done the right things and decided that it's best to wait and let her finger heal on it's own. We're going to monitor her healing process and go back to see her several times in the next year. She said there's a chance that surgery may still be needed, but she think her body will correct it on its own. If you look at the first pictures of the x-ray, there's a round ball that's up that should be sitting in the pocket of the bone. The specialist said that it's best to cast her arm to protect her from falling or from her finger being stepped on and damaged further. They had to cast her arm up to her elbow because she would have wriggled out of it by the time I hit the parking lot. She has to keep it on for two weeks and then she'll be good to go. 

She is such a special girl, I can't believe how well she's been handling everything. She's sleeping just fine, hasn't been fussy, crawls everywhere, and is just as happy as can be. Again, I'm so grateful she's ok and surgery won't be necessary (for now). I prayed so hard and we had our visiting teachers come by for a blessing and I truly believe in the power of prayer. It's just a broken finger, and this may seem over dramatic, but it's so hard to see your children go through hard times. Thankfully, she's totally unaware of it and will never remember this time! Thank you all so much for all your prayers, thoughts, and kind words. It's means so much to me to have so many friends who are so supportive!