Injuries as Drama

I think Miz Liz still has an achy elbow. She's using it although she is favoring it, and I saw the x-rays myself, so I know it's not still out of joint. But it still "huhts a little and I'm afwaid it will huht a lot". Tylenol and ice are our friends, and since we aren't going anywhere today I went ahead and left her in her jammies so we don't have to deal with taking off the pajama top. But oh the drama of it all. Abby's friend Kiki came over with another girl, and Lizzy felt she needed to explain the whole thing, to each of them, separately. "I huhted my ahm because I wan into the stweet and Leanna gwabbed me so I don't get hit by a cah and that huhted my ahm but Mama says it's bettah than getting hit by a cah."

Indeed it is.

At the moment, Lizzy is sitting cuddled up to me, with her left arm wrapped in a Blue Ice pack I got from my chiropractor a couple years ago (she had to be convinced that it was "weally ice", because it's not hard). We're watching the Backyardigans. If she weren't hurting she'd be jumping around like a maniac, trying to keep herself awake. But as I said above, the joint itself is no longer injured. I suspect several muscles or ligaments got pulled in the process of either dislocating it or reducing the dislocation. I have a call in to the consulting nurse at the hospital to see if lingering pain is normal. If it is, no worries. If not, I'll ask the nurse whether we need to go back to the E.R, or if going in to her pediatrician tomorrow is appropriate. Lizzy is not enjoying this booboo.

She is definitely enjoying the cachet of having had an injury however. This was not only bad enough to require ice, it necessitated a trip to the doctor, where they took pictures of the inside of her arm with "an x-way" and told her she was a brave girl and gave her a popsicle. She even got to talk to the ambulance dwivahs - "they dwive sick people who don't have mommies to dwive them to the hospital, you know".

I just hope the overall experience is enough to make her think twice about running into the road in future.

ETA: The consulting nurse agrees that this issue is many-fold - Lizzy is older than the last time this happened so she is not as "loose" and may be sore, and she recognizes the attention an injury gets her - and suggested fashioning a sling. This gives Lizzy a) physical support of the sore limb, and b) a visible "bandage" to satisfy her band-aids-as-body-art-three-year-old-ness. And we should switch from acetaminophen to ibuprofen, as the latter is an anti-inflammatory. Nurse said if Lizzy refuses to use it tomorrow or starts crying in pain (as opposed to whining with irritation as she has been all day) we should take her in to her pediatrician.

Now, what to do about the crick in my neck due to her glomming onto me all day...