FOUR little FULTONS: nursemaid's elbow

Monday, December 29, 2008

Nursemaid's elbow

Ok, I have to admit that before children I NEVER heard about or knew what Nursemaid's elbow meant. I can now say that I am sort of an expert on it! My Camryn has now been to the ER twice due to this ailment. This time it was my 5 year old niece trying to help her back up on Grandma's bed that possibly caused it. Camryn can be VERY dramatic & of course she ONLY wants her mommy. So, once I got home from work my niece Katie, Camryn & I were off to the ER. I was not looking forward to the wait but I needed to make sure we made the right diagnosis. This time she would not move her right arm at all. In the waiting room she was pretty good but still cradled her arm. I think she was more afraid of feeling the pain she had earlier so she kept it still. We tried EVERYTHING to get her mind off it. She would stare at all the other patients waiting to be seen, even give a smile now & then but once we touched her arm she would cry. I decided we needed to stay & get a doctors opinion. After waiting about 2 hours her name was FINALLY called. They took us back into the "minor" care section. Dr. Finegold took very good care of her. He ordered some X-Rays & gave her some ibuprofen. She continued to be one WHINY girl. It was now 9pm & Cam Cam was getting VERY tired too! We changed her into her PJ's & waited for the results. FINALLY, no breaks, nothing! She just had...

Nursemaid's elbow...

Monday, September 22, 2008

a trip to the ER...

It was a CRAZY morning. The babies were all over the place when Camryn started sobbing. This is unusual for even her. She kept grabbing her left arm and wanted to be held. I checked her ALL over & could not find any swelling or most importantly blood. We could not figure out what had happened to her. After about 20 minutes of hearing her cry I decided I better seek some medical advice. I called the Pediatrician's office & they told me to go to an Urgent Medical Care or ER. I then called Michael to tell him that he needed to leave work & come to Grandma's to care for the other three. Luckily Uncle Bob was nearby so he came and watched them until Daddy got here. As I put her in her car seat she cried so I knew that she was hurt in some way. I decided to take her to an Urgent Medical Care near my work they seem to have a shorter wait time than a hospital. As I am driving I realize that I did not have her insurance card. Uh Oh! I better call Humana to get her card # since I did not know each babies ID #. After TOO much discussion the insurance lady had me in tears saying that they would not cover our visit there since they were not on the provider list. What is that!!? I was SO upset!! I called Michael, who was now on his way to Grandma's, and he said to take her to Holy Cross. So I was now headed there. Mind you Miss Camryn was now only fussing a little. We decided it was better to be safe than sorry so off I went. After filling out some forms and explaining about her insurance card, etc. we were waited for about 45 minutes to be seen. I do not like hospital ER's. There is TOO many sick people with G-E-R-M-S! As the time passed she got better & better. You would never know her arm even hurt her! Little stinker! I just think she wanted some "mommy time"! The Dr finally came in & checked her out. After checking a few things he determined that she had what they call a "nursemaid's elbow". It is a pediatric version of a dislocated elbow. It already went back into place by the time we were seen in the ER. He said it is VERY common with children especially under the age of 3 and gave us paperwork on it. $50.00 later she is fine, jumping around and being a normal 20 month old! I do feel better having a Dr tell me that everything was ok. However I could have not used...

a trip to the ER....

Our Story...

Ok I am now over 8 years into this "job" of mine, being a mommy to multiples, high order multiples to boot! They say that if you try to conceive without protection for one year with no success then you are infertile. Those words were a lot to take in. I sought answers from everyone. We started out with our 1st OB/GYN Dr William Casale doing the normal testing that they were equipped to do. We did it all, IUI's, spermwashing, etc. I then contacted RESOLVE, a wonderful organization for people like me (could not get pregnant). I started making mental notes of what I needed to achieve my dream, to be a mom! The next step was to go see a Fertility Doctor. We chose to see Dr Mark Denker. After checking me out he then referred Michael to see a Urologist who ended up putting him on clomid. Yes, men can take this RX too! It helps make more sperm just like it helps a woman create more follicles. It is AMAZING the things you learn when you are trying to conceive! After further testing we were both told we had fertility issues, I had fewer eggs than a woman my age & they were "tough", Michael had double vericasils so that in order for us to have the "best odds" we needed to go the IVF route. I had this feeling that it was not going to work right away, call it my intuition. So we bought a package, can you even believe that they sell "packages" like a travel agency? Our "package" included 3 rounds of IVF with ICSI, minus all the meds I would need. The drugs are an expense we did not even think of but had to purchase for this entire thing to work. Well, it ended up taking all 3 rounds of IVF & accupuncture courtesy of Dr Susan Schiff for me to get pregnant & boy did I get pregnant! (Trust your intuition!) We started out with very few follicles, only 3 fertilized into embryo's and all three took. I was finally pregnant! 8 weeks into my pregnancy one of the embryo's split & became identical. Can you believe that!? What are the odds? No one told me that could happen! AMAZING! We had a lot of decisions to make. No one thought that we should keep all four. In the medical world it is called a "selective reduction". Only a few doctors even do this procedure. We did not know what our future would hold just that we could not reduce anything! In the beginning we had a hard time finding a doctor that felt like we did & wanted our four babies to thrive! We finally found Dr Moises Virelles, a fellow Christian & my now OB/GYN. He then referred us to an AWESOME Perinatologist, Dr Gary Cohen. Having the two of them on our side we knew ANYTHING was possible! My pregnancy was really uneventful. I was put on "bed rest" at 22 weeks. I later found out my "bed rest" was unlike other women's bed rest. I was just not allowed to work. I continued to do things, just stayed off my feet as much as possible. If I went shopping I would ride a motorized scooter. If I went to a party I sat pretty much the entire time. I had no issues, my cervix was long & rock solid. I really feel that God wanted me to be a mommy! The babies were great! They kicked each other more than they kicked me! People would look at me & could not believe that I had four babies inside me, I tell you I was meant to carry quads! Now don't get me wrong, it was not a joy ride, I was miserable towards the end & felt it very difficult to breathe. I never even went into the hospital prior to January 15th. Even though I asked them to admit me MANY times!! On January 17, 2007 we welcomed our GBGG quads; Camryn, Brendan, Avery & Lindsey into this world. 1 set is fraternal & 1 set is identical. They weighed 4 lb 7 oz, 4 lb 4 oz, 3 lb 6 oz & 3 lb 3 oz. I made it 32 weeks 5 days when I delivered them at St Mary's Medical Center. They were all HEALTHY and they did not need to be intubated! WOO HOO! They were little miracles destined to be here! I had nurses come up to me & tell me how wonderful it was that I carried them so long, that it was a better gift holding onto them as long as I did than a Harvard education! WOW! We were SO happy, excited & most of all unprepared for how much our life was about to change. I will say it was a GOOD change! I cannot imagine my life without them! Everyone watches our little ones in amazement & they still do. This is their story....

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