Leea and her broken elbow

While going through our photos today, I found these of Leea with her broken elbow back on Sunday Jan 6 of this year. That morning around 7am she had climbed onto the piano bench in an attempt to get some tissues that she could have easily gotten from the floor. From our bed we heard a crash and then crying. I was eager to pick her up and comfort her, but Lincoln insisted on examining her on the floor first. He couldn't tell whether something was broken for sure, but he knew something wasn't right with her arm by the way she was holding it. They went to the ER and came back with the diagnosis of a broken elbow (or as Lincoln points out, a "nondisplaced nonangulated supracondylar fracture of the humerus"). She said she had fallen directly on her elbow. OUCH!!! It was hard to see anything on Leea's X-rays, but the orthopedist and the radiologist did confirm it looked like a fracture. It was a rough Sunday morning for her, but in a way it was a special experience for her and Lincoln to be together for all the hospital stuff, and she still loves the soft black teddy bear they gave her there.

The whole 5 weeks the splint was on, Leea was being such a great girl. In fact she's always been a toughy, but this time she really proved it. There was very little complaining and she didn't need any medication. We even got the hang of getting dressed fast.

That very same day was Leea's first day in Primary at church, and she also had her very first day of preschool the following day. I thought those distractions from her pain could only be good for her, plus there are always plenty of teachers at her preschool to take care of her.

The ER doctor had told Leea and Lincoln that the treatment for her arm would mainly be the splint and "ice cream," and she may have thought she really needed to eat ice cream so her arm could feel or heal better, but at the very least she picked up on a sly way to get a treat. One evening she insisted on another helping of ice cream, saying calmly and cleverly, "Mom, my elbow is still hurting - I need more ice cream." I figured that one out pretty fast.

In the photo below, Leea is trying to open the fridge with her left arm. It wouldn't open right away, so she tried to open it from a different angle and got caught up in her own body.

Leea had to learn to do everything with her left arm/hand. At the end of the 5 weeks she had mastered eating, coloring, etc. with both hands equally. She actually kept using her left hand for a while. After getting the splint off she couldn't bend her elbow all the way, but that has gradually resolved. We're grateful she recovered quickly from her injury and did so well throughout it all. Good job Leea, what a brave girl you are!