Last weekend on Sunday we decided to go to sand park which is about 8-9 blocks away. I wasn’t sure if we were going to dinner afterwards so I said we could drive. Well both kids pleaded to do a family bike ride and take the frisbee so I relented and said sure, why not? It was about 4:30 pm so figured we’d be fine to ride there and then do dinner at 530-ish.
The weather was on the cool side which felt great to me and when we got there another mom with three kids was there. My girl is quite social and seems to make park friends quickly so she started playing with one of the little boys. Well, that left my son to run after them and/or he and I did swings, climbing etc. after awhile I was standing next to the mom and we started talking. I learned her kids are 5 and the twins were 3, same age as mine. Then her daughter got on one side of the teeter totter and my son decided to get on the other. We were standing there close to the middle and they went up/downna few times and right at the top of the up for my son........I saw him slipping to his left and next thing I know he’s on the ground just wailing!!! He fell basically down about 5 ft—straight down. Immediately I thought, oh no....he was wailing so hard and wouldn’t try to stand up so I picked him up and he buried his head in my shoulder and held on to my neck so tight like a little monkey.
I just knew this wasn’t a little bump. So with him not putting his right leg down I panicked for a brief second because I have two kids, 3 bikes, and a long ways from home. The mom offered to help watch our things while I took them home to get the car, bring them back, then load up our stuff.
I carried him all the way stopping a few times just to put him down—he weighs almost 40 lbs. and the poor kid cried all the way home.
Once we got home put them straight into car and we went back to park. The mom was so nice she and her kids helped bring our bikes/helmets/frisbee/waterbottles over to the car. I actually went back and put my name and number on napkin and gave to her saying maybe we can connect at park another time because she was so nice—older, worked full time, kids same age, my girl became quick friends w her son.
I then needed to decide urgent care, ER, or what to do....by then he had settled down and wasn’t crying and it was 6pm so off to McD we went to eat quick dinner. I carried my son in and he sat at the table fine. Since we’ve done the ER before and learned nothing happens fast I eventually decided to just wait overnight and call the peds office in the morning. I know we would need X-rays but they could then be done on outpatient basis. The peds said they needed to see him first so off we went early Monday morning. Before we left, however, my son was sitting on a kitchen chair sort of eating breakfast and forgot he was hurt....next thing I know he’s on the ground yelping and screaming because he tried to get down. Can’t tell you how bad I felt about that one since it was my idea to put him there.
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| Seriously mom. Can we go in already? |
Huh?! What?! No flipping way. At that point nothing else to do but go home. Both nanny and I said something is seriously wrong he was hurting so bad, wouldn’t bear weight. I was so distraught I called our peds office back to ask what now??
She recommended starting Tyl.enol/Motrin alternate every 3 hours and call to get in to children’s hospital orthopedic doctor as soon as we could get an appointment. I couldn’t fathom waiting even a day so when I called I said any campus was fine. Of course the one 5 minutes from the house had no appointments until Wednesday so I originally took one at a satellite campus. Then I looked up the doctor and said no way, she had just graduated in 2017....so they said another dr in city’s medical center hospital had opening so we took it—about 40 min drive no traffic.
I decided I wanted nanny with me so I went to pick up my girl from school early since I knew we couldn’t make back in time—turned out to be a good experience for her to see all that happened.
So we get there, dr comes in and I was so surprised he had like—no personality, bedside manner ummm not so good. Supposedly he a specialist in field so whatever. He felt up and down my son’s leg and found where super tender (tibia/shin bone) as he winced whenever he touched it. The dr looked at the X-rays in the system and said he didn’t see a break BUT—he said at this age he sees patients all the time where it IS broken but it doesn’t show on X-ray. He diagnosed him as having a tibia fracture. The way to treat it is to cast it so off we went to the casting room.
Considering this was our first go round with casts I assumed once the cast was put on he would feel better. It was actually just the opposite. The cast just plain hurt. It was heavy and due to swelling it was tight. Once we got home he just didn’t want to move from the sofa. This poor poor baby. The picture below was from the end of the day Monday after peds office, x ray hospital, ortho hospital visit, then drive home. It was a lot.
Around Wednesday he seemed to want to at least get off the couch so that was progress. He actually sat on the floor, then went to crawling, then to standing (but not for long). It was like watching his infancy all over again where he learned to do all those things...but it was all done in one day. The other thing that I realized was wow....in a way this is what it would be taking care of a special needs child i.e. even though he's three he couldn't do anything for himself. That was pretty sobering.
We've continued to give him motrintylenol and he did okay Tue/Wed night however, Thursday night he woke up from 3-5 am just very restless.....and last night was downright horrendous.
At the beginning of the post I mentioned I had to stop writing this post last night.....I had put him to bed around 8 and he didn't fall asleep until 8:30 ish. Then woke back up at 9pm.....he just could not get comfortable. He said his leg was hurting, he kept tossing, turning, and crying....I went in there numerous times to see what I could do and finally just stayed in there in the chair. I held him for a bit, but that didn't help much.....I gave him his scheduled doses of medication, that didn't help...he just kept trashing around, teeth chattering, said he was hurting. Not knowing what else to do, at around 10:30pm I took him into the pack and play I had set up next to my bed so I could lay with him. Unfortunately that didn't help either....he kept crying out as soon as he was about to drift off that 'It's hurting'..'My weg is hurting'.....I started to get desperate the later it was getting....around 2:30am I think he finally drifted off. I'm pretty sure I did too.
However, around 5:00am he woke up again crying out and saying he was hurting. I gave him his dose and laid with him to try and comfort him. Kept telling him I know, I know......I'm so sorry. There just wasn't anything else I could do!! He fell back asleep until around 6:00am and he was up.
He didn't seem to find any relief at all and quite frankly was now exhausted on top of it. So, I could only think that maybe his pain medicine just wasn't enough to help him.....maybe because he started crawling around a lot more and that was aggravating it? Easier said than done because this morning as soon as they opened we went to a pediatric urgent care we've been to before and they said they couldn't help us since they can only do motrintylenol. They suggested going to an adult/child urgent care. I called another one and they said they don't do anything else for prescription pain. They did, however, say that my hospital that my pediatrician is in does have an urgent care and maybe I should try there.
Noone would answer the phone so here I go dragging them to another place (not to mention my girl is sick also, she has a head cold, is exhausted, and is in a bear of a mood). Ultimately the ER Dr. came out and he listened to our story and said there really isn't anything they do more than what we are doing, since he is 3. If he were in serious pain they could give him a morphine shot but that didn't seem like a good plan....and of course as he was sitting in his stroller he was not crying out, so the Dr. says 'looks like he's okay now'.....well of course he is because he's not moving!! That is so aggravating. Did he want me to pick him up just to show him how he cries out in pain?! He said the only other thing would be to admit him as an ER patient and write a script for something stronger, but they wouldn't have it there AND they just don't do it very often. I felt a bit defeated after that, so we just said thanks for the info and headed home.
I have continued to give him his doses and the Dr. did say just to help him relax and potentially help him sleep I could give him some bena.dryl. So after lunch I gave him like 1/2 a dose and he is laying down now.......sleeping. He is finally sleeping.
I am just exhausted. The minute I would almost drift off last night he would call out.....his thing is 'Mommy, I neeeed you'. I told him to yell for me instead of trying to crawl out, so he does. In fact on Wednesday night maybe, he actually crawled out of the little bed and went into the toyroom around 9pm. I kept hearing something and thought it was the cat. The stinker wanted to play apparently.
So we went from him being mobile like that to having severe pain last night (which he did not Mon, Tue, Wed, or Thurs) at night.....it's got me nervous and worried. I'm hoping he didn't hurt himself more and perhaps it's just aggravated or swollen from him crawling all around during the last few days. The Dr. did say that since he has a cast on already it is very unlikely he could hurt himself again.
All I know is this takes me back to the night he was a few month old and nothing, absolutely nothing would console him. My old nanny ended up walking him up and down the street in the stroller until he fell asleep, and slept maybe a few hours the whole night. Then I had my girl who was two at the time up and ready for the day. At least now that she's five she is more independent and is happy to watch a lot of shows. She needs downtime too because she isn't feeling good either.
Hard parenting times....there's not much worse for me than to see my baby in pain and I can't fix it or console him. It's a terrible feeling knowing he is hurting terribly and only time will hopefully help.
Big, big sigh.......
On a positive note, he has loved getting in the shower....it just really feels good for him. I used one of our play table chairs and have him keep his leg outside the shower curtain. Since this picture I've gotten a cast bag which works great....but before I put on a garbage bag and masking taped it around his knee. At least there's been at least a few smiles in the last week.
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