But let me tell you about the interesting time that my wild child has been having!
We got her helmet off in April! Wahoo! And then we began physical therapy which was twice a week and she hated every minute of it. We made it 2 weeks of appointments when we had to call a quits about it. "Why" you ask? Because my sweet baby girl BROKE HER LEG!
Yup! You read that right! We spent 5 weeks in a hot pink cast after a tibia fracture!
It was a Friday afternoon and I had a full day and night ahead of us. I had called Hailey's school and told them that I needed to pick her up because we needed to head to Maryland that night. I was quickly getting ready and I put Emily on the bed to drink her bottle so we could get ready to go. I had been folding clothes so I had them up on the edge so I figured she would be fine since she was eating her bottle. I wasn't in the bathroom long, before I heard her stirring and then I heard it. She fell off the bed. I will be honest, she has fallen before and usually scares her and then is good to go, but this time was different. The cry was awful and after it I had a horrible time consoling her. I couldn't get her to calm down. I just knew that something was wrong. I was finally able to get her to nap and rest for a bit in hope that she would calm herself down and be okay when she woke up. She slept for about 20 minutes before I had to wake her for therapy. Unfortunately she went back to crying. I could not find anything visibly wrong with her, but the way she was crying was killing me. I put her in her car seat while I was trying to figure out what to do. I finally called Kenny. He was upset with me like I expected, but he did tell me to just take her to therapy and have them evaluate her.
I got her all strapped in and put her in the car. I noticed she had her leg bent so I straightened it out and she screamed. I immediately lost it! I knew she was hurt. I drove down the road trying to figure out what to do. I stopped at the first place I got service and called physical therapy. The girl could barely understand me because I was so upset and crying so hard. I then tried to call her pediatrician and was put on hold for 10 minutes and finally hung up. I was at a lot of what to do. I knew if I took her to the hospital that I would not be able to get to Hailey in time. So I decided to go grab her early. I was able to compose myself to get her from school, but lost it again once I had to tell Hailey that Emily was hurt. Of course she looks in the carrier and Emily immediately smiles! She looked at me like I was crazy, but Emily had had such a sad look on her face until she saw Hailey.
I decided to take her to the Urgent Care. I sat in the waiting room crying because I felt so upset about Emily falling and possibly being hurt. When we were taken back the nurse was trying to comfort me and told me stories of her kids falling off the bed and assured me that she would be okay. She gets the doctor to come in and talk to me and the doctor informed me that she needed to go to the ER where they could take care of her because she needed head and back CTs and they couldn't do that there and how there could be serious trauma. So I was sent on my way more upset then before.
I decided before going to the hospital to look Emily over one more time. I pulled over and got her out of her seat and tried to get her to stand. She would not stand no matter how hard I tried. I put her back in the car and went back to crying and drove to the hospital. I called Kenny and told him and asked what he thought and he answered with "Do what you think, but remember you are the one who is going to have to explain what happened!" That was not helpful.
By the time I got to the hospital I was prepared to talk to Social Services, CPS, the police, anyone who may think that I was hurting my child. Luckily I did not have to deal with any of that. I think they could tell that she was a happy healthy kid and that I was more than remorseful. We moved through the ER quickly and was taken back for a "babygram" which is a full body xray. The doctor said basically based on the fact that she would scream when he got close that he really thought she was okay because if something was wrong her cry would be much different when he touched her in a spot that hurt. I was panicked when they came back for more xrays. I thought maybe they had seen something, but after 4 hours in the ER we were discharged with a clean bill of health! I was so thankful!
That weekend Emily was still off. You could tell her leg was bothering her, but she was using it. She would whimper when you touched it, but she was overall pretty happy! She would use it to scoot around the floor, but she would not stand on it. She would not put any weight on it at all. She would stand like a little flamingo.
I decided to take off that Monday and called FIRST thing in the morning to make an appointment with her pediatrician just to double check that everything was still good. I got an appointment and headed in. I got a huge lecture about not putting babies where they could fall, yes I clearly know that and have learned my lesson! And she rubbed Emily's legs and said everything looked good with how she reacted, but because she was not putting any weight on it, she said we needed another xray to just ensure that it was just sore and nothing serious. There was no bruising or swelling so we were hopeful things would be good.
Let's just say, xrays at the hospital were torture, and then having to redo them sucked even more so! But she was a champ and we were in and out at the hospital imaging center. I decided we could go to the mall and hang out for a bit. We were walking around Sephora when I looked at my phone and saw I had a missed call. I listened to my voicemail and it was her pediatrician office calling to tell me that her leg was fractured and that they needed to talk to me right away. I hurried up and called her back and while waiting on hold Kenny beeped in multiple times. He had also received a phone call and they were looking for me. I cried as they told me her little leg was broken and we had to be seen right away and that they were able to get me in with our local ortho and that we needed to get there right away because they were waiting for us.
So we got on the highway and drove to ortho where we sat for about an hour. Emily was just as happy as could be. I kept looking at her thinking "how could she be this happy if her leg is broken?!". Let's just say the orthopedic doctor wasn't overly friendly and I think I was being screened for child abuse, which whatever, I am sure they see things all the time and people tell them innocent stories like mine all the time. I had nothing to hide even though I did not like the feeling. He looked her leg over and touched one spot and she lost it! Clearly the part where it was broken was definitely sensitive. He looked the xrays over and said we had no choice, but to cast it. That was an awful process, but not as awful as when it had to come off. The doctor did finally lighten up on me when he could see how upset I was as I was holding her down while they were casting.
We spent 48 hours trying to keep her leg elevated to avoid swelling which could of made for a medical emergency. She didn't seem in pain at all and was ready to get down when her time was up. She quickly adapted and was back to scooting and moving all over the place! We spent 5 long weeks in the cast, but when all was said and done the new xray showed that it was a complete heal and she was good to go. Her little leg was itchy when the cast came off, which let me just add again was an awful experience! I made Kenny go with me to help, which I definitely needed it! After she got ahold of her leg, she ended up scratching it until it bled on the way home from the doctors! Luckily that is healed and it's been about 2 weeks and you would have never of known she broke her leg!
I am so glad that is behind us. It was an extremely hard time. I was upset it happened and I was upset that the hospital missed the break and she spent all weekend using her broken leg. I am just thankful that I listened to my mommy instincts and followed up with her doctor. We would have just gone on thinking it was sore and never would have known it was broken. And I was comforted by about 95% of every mom that I talked to who shared their stories of kids falling off couches and beds. I have since not allowed her to be alone on anywhere, but the floor. I have definitely learned my lesson about that!
So now here are some pictures from the time the baby broke her leg!
Our ER visit from the first night! Her sister took amazing care of her!
Can you believe this baby had a broken leg?!
This was before we went to her pediatrician appointment!
Later that day! This was during our elevation process!
And her concerned sister was always there to help her!
This was the same face I made when they told us we had 3 more weeks left at our 2 week check up! We were hopeful for 3 weeks total, but ended up with 5 weeks!
Right before it came off!
We got a leg back!!!!!
This was her damage done from having an itchy leg! Luckily she is all healed now!
