Last week Andrew went to his physical therapy appointment on Monday morning, and then we went about our day as usual. In the evening I was in the kitchen getting dinner together and all the boys were downstairs playing. Suddenly Andrew started crying. After a minute or so of him crying I yelled down the stairs asking what was wrong with Andrew. I kept getting the response of "we dunno he just started crying!" I called Andrew's name a few times and I saw him crawling his way up the stairs. I sat down at the stop of the stairs and pulled him into my lap where he cried for a few more minutes and started to close his eyes. My first thought was "oh you are NOT going to sleep now buddy!" I started talking to him and he had stopped crying so I put him back down and stood up to go in the kitchen. He stood up and immediately fell back to the floor and started crying again. I picked him back up and put him on my hip and walked into the kitchen. I was trying to get dinner together and hold him and answer the other boys and referree their fighting, and was getting frustrated. I put Andrew down again and I noticed it looked like he went to take a step and then fell to the floor again and started crying.
At this point I kinda turned my head and looked at him going "what the hell?" I carried him into the dining room and again tried to put him down. I saw him take a step and fall and scream again. I called my husband upstairs and told him I thought something was wrong with Andrew's leg and that he wouldn't walk on it. I showed him what I meant and tried to put Andrew down again. The same thing happened with him falling immediately. I squeezed up and down his leg and he kinda wimpered a little bit. I gave my husband a look and he said "Go ahead and take him to the urgent care" So I picked him up and off we went.
When we got there I told them that I thought maybe he had hurt his leg and of course they asked how he hurt it. My response was "I know this makes me sound really bad, but I have no idea. He was downstairs with his brothers and he just started crying and then wouldn't walk." The nurse said "You didn't ask your other kids what happened?" Well of course I did!! But it isn't like they said "oh you know, I hurt him." Or anything! I told her the only response I got was "he just started crying." She tried to watch him walk and he kinda limped around and then just completely stopped and started crawling. She manipulated his legs and said she wanted to get some xrays because she thought he may have a "toddler's fracture". She said they are very common in kids his age but they are also extremely hard to diagnose.
We took some xrays and she told me she thought she saw a fracture in one film, but didn't see it in any of the other angles. She said she wanted us to see a orthopedist and she splinted his leg before we left.
Long story short, when we saw the orthopedist he looked at the xrays and said he didn't see a fracture, but like the urgent care doctor said, they are very hard to see and diagnose and therefore most of the time you DON'T see them until they start to heal and calcify. For that reason and because he said Andrew's reactions sounded like a spiral fracture of the Tibia (a "toddler's fracture") he put him in a cast for 3 weeks.
He decided to go with a "short leg" cast for now, because at least with a short leg cast he can still walk/crawl and everything. He said at Andrew's age (16 months) they have a tendency to wiggle out of the short leg cast and if he does, then we may have to go to a full leg cast. For now though Andrew hasn't messed with the cast at all. It sure isn't slowing him down any either! He's walking/crawling/climbing/running etc with it!
Four boys and this is our first cast! I told the doctor I KNEW Andrew was trouble from the day he was born. First the NICU and now a cast! He's definitely trying to put me in an early grave!
Posts
