Last night Eric had a little mishap.

Eric will appreciate mechanized infantry when he learns about them. Like tanks roll rapidly over all obstacles, he sometimes switches into a single-minded super-speed crawlamania. Late yesterday evening, he aborted such a maneuver suddenly. He went partly limp and couldn’t move over the next obstacle.

He did not appear to be in pain, and physically he looked fine. But he would not move his right arm much. We figured he probably sprained some joint, and that a night’s rest would fix it. In any case, there was no emergency. He woke up at 4 AM, but his movement did not return. We became more concerned, and started throwing around the “hospital” term.

Most parents will have figured it out by now, but of course we didn’t receive the Eric Owner’s Manual. We did little tests to figure out the degree of problem. His legs were fine. His circulation was fine. His arm moved freely without pain, so there was no bone breakage. He would respond to touch on his right arm, but with only a minimum of muscle. He still looked and felt symmetric. Having imagined some minor as well as scary explanations for this, I called Telehealth Ontario for advice.

This did not go so well. The nurse on the phone spent three minutes just taking down super detailed contact information for me. I tried to organize my layman’s observations as she slowly progressed down some private triage flowchart. Her conclusion, after something like ten minutes: “take him to emergency now”. She did not share any possible explanations, just left it at that. Liability concerns must overrule courtesy there.

Off to Sick Kids we went. We were all sleepy, not at all stressed. Or at least, not until we saw what kinds of freaks walk Toronto’s streets this time of the night. There were homeless dudes and dudettes just sitting around, there were petty criminals with long screwdrivers trying to jimmy open newspaper boxes. Eeek.

Once at the hospital, we were seen immediately. The waiting room was empty. A triage nurse diagnosed the problem right away: a dislocated elbow. This is apparently very common minor occurrence, for little people of Eric’s age. She snapped it back in, and instantly movement returned. We got to hang around for half an hour more, completing paperwork with a sleepy clerk lady, and seeing a young doctor dude a few times. Eric woke up for real and was playing with all the nearby equipment. Whatever crisis there was, it was obviously over when the little brat started vigorously shaking a stretcher, using his right hand only.

I’m surprised at how quickly the system worked today. It’s nice to receive some good service for all the taxes I’ve paid over the years. If it hadn’t been so much already, I’d have sent considerable donations to these organizations by now.