The accident prone one

Pumpki is highly accident prone. Highly. She will be playing a minute and bam she will hit her head against something, get her finger stuck some place (some times she does it deliberately too )or have something fall on her. She will be doing horsey ride on K or my back and she will topple down (any child could topple down, but Pumpki will definitely topple down!) So much so, she would be standing one minute and the next she would fall down. We learned that she has a knack to get physically hurt (no combat sports for her!). But we had a few near hits!

When she was younger, I used to massage her once in the morning and once in the evening. One evening I was giving her a massage and as advised by my mother, I was applying adequate pressure (Mummy’s strict words were to apply a lot of pressure so that her bones became stronger. How scientifically true this is, needs validation J ) And think I applied a bit too much pressure on her hand and she started crying. I immediately stopped as K went on ranting about the need of massage, about my careless (yeah *rolls eyes*) , and about nearly everything except my cooking :P ) I called the emergency care line. Given her age of around 13 months and hearing the intensity of her cries (now Pumpki can cry, she can blast eardrums!), the advisor thought it would be a good idea to get her to the out of hours service immediately. Thankfully Amma was there with us then and we could safely leave Chiyaa in her care and rush to the hospital. It was around 2000 by that time and Pumpki was fast asleep. When she was drifting out of sleep, she would grimace a bit and then sleep again. It had us worried till the doctor saw her and said, there was absolutely no need to panic since she did not see any dislocation of any sort. She asked us to administer some paracetamol and keep an eye for any changes. She was fine the next morning. We were immensely relieved. We made a note to self that her hand was a bit fragile and to treat it with care.

But I am not one to remember the notes to self. I am not one to remember many things for that matter. So once day in the recent past I was playing with her. When I play I get too involved and forget that I am an adult with adult strength. Essentially I was sitting, holding her hands, she was leaning on my back and I was rocking back and forth (like a piggy back). Suddenly she let go. I should have allowed her to fall, since she would have fallen on the sofa. But I held on, rather I tried to hold on. In the pull one of her arms got hurt. She cried! She cried in desperate pain. K wasn’t around to give the earful to me. But I was genuinely worried. I was sure something was wrong, I had dislocated a joint or something worse had happened. We gave her some pain killer and since it was around 2100, she started drifting off to sleep in spite of the pain (I have no idea why such treacherous incidents happen at night) I called the emergency care line again (they must have started judging me as a mother by now ) and they recommended we get her examined. But if she was asleep it would not need rousing her. We (Papa and mummy were thankfully around) waited till morning. We all had a fitful night. Pumpki took a couple of doses of ibuprofen. First thing in the morning we scooted to the hospital. She was x-rayed. Then a doctor came in to examine. Now there is not a lot of response you can elicit from a 2 year old. The doctor performed some maneuvers. There was no dislocation per se, but she could sense that there mild disjoint. Since the joints of kids are smaller, they go through this a lot and it happens quite easily. She said that chances are, when her hand was being twisted and turned for the x-ray, it would have sorted itself. But still was going to try a few moves just in case there hadn’t been a 100% fit.  Kudos to the doctor on gauging the response from a child. Pumpki had given up using her affected arm. So the doctor brought in two toys, with the more “attractive” one on the side of her hurt arm. Pumpki made a slight motion to reach to it, but then went for the toy closer to her unhurt arm. It was not a conclusive test, but the doctor advised that, there seemed to be no problem and it would be safe to go home but as usual keep an eye.

We kept 4 pairs of eyes glued to when she would use her left arm – to lift a toy, to hold an adult’s arm and walk and to move around. When after 2 days, she used her left arm to support herself and get up from the floor were we certain that she was clear. The days had been filled with such anxiety!

Pumpki is accident prone by herself, but those incidents made us think to be extra protective.