Micah's broken leg

Yesterday evening, after dinner, Tim took the boys out back, since it finally stopped raining for 10 minutes. Micah walks pretty well in the grass but he is still learning to handle the hill and the bumps and he is just clumsy to begin with. So tripping and falling down in the grass is a normal occurrence. Sometimes he cries, sometimes he doesn't but he is always fine. Well last night he tripped and fell in the grass and started crying, but this time he didn't stop and he would not walk at all. It took a long time to calm him down and he still refused to walk. We gave him tylenol and put him to bed. I was hoping it was nothing and he would wake up fine. But there was no swelling or bruising so I knew if he wasn't fine in the morning it was probably broken. He was up crying every three hours over night and when I got him up in the morning he still wouldn't put pressure on his foot. I tried calling the pediatricians office to check and see if I should bring him there or just go to the hospital. They took my message and an hour later I still hadn't heard back so I called again. They agreed that it was more likely broken and would need an x-ray so I should go to the Children's Hospital. As I'm heading out of the neighborhood with both of the boys, I realized that I don't think I can do this by myself. So we stopped and picked up Tim on our way to the hospital and had a family trip to the hospital. 

Of course the Children's Hospital is our second home so we knew right where we were going and check in was a breeze because they have all of Micah's information in the system. The boys did really well. They loved watching the disney channel on the tv in the room. The doctor suspected that there was a fracture in his leg from her exam. Tim took Micah to get the x-rays done on his foot, ankle and leg. The x-rays confirmed what is actually called a "toddler fracture" in his tibia. They suspect that when he fell in the grass he had turned and twisted his leg causing the fracture. I guess protocol for this is to put on a splint, which he would not be able to walk or even stand in, and then have us follow up with the orthopedic doctor a week later to get a cast. First, how do you stop a toddler from standing and walking? Second exactly one week later I will be delivering a baby, so that wont work for us. Luckily the doctor called the orthopedic doctor and explained our situation. The orthopedic doctor was great! And said to send us right up to him and he would put a cast right on for us so that we wouldn't need a one week follow up and Micah can put pressure on the cast. We were quickly discharged, which was nice too! and sent up to the orthopedic clinic. 

We forgot how long things generally take in ER's so by the time we were discharged had missed lunch and naps. So we stopped in the cafeteria and ate quickly then went up to orthopedics. It was so nice of them to squeeze us in between other patients and put the cast on. The boys, still, did great and were pretty patient, but I could tell they were exhausted. We picked Micah's favorite color, green, for his cast. The cast goes from his toes, halfway up his thigh, his whole leg. It looks so uncomfortable. After the cast was on we scheduled a 3 week follow up to have the cast removed. We snagged a wagon to get the kids back to the car faster. We dropped Tim off at work and the boys fell right asleep in the car. 

I think Micah's pain is better since the cast but he hates it. He is allowed to walk on it and stand on it but he doesn't. He wants to stay right with one of us and needs to be carried around. Hopefully this will get better and he will figure out how to get around. But we have to keep it dry and clean... that will be interesting. Ben doesn't understand that Micah is not as mobile as he was and he asked me to take the green thing off of Micah's leg. I tried to explain that Micah's leg is hurt and he needs the green thing to make it better. The cast is one more thing to worry about these next few weeks. Our parents will be here taking care of the boys and will have to be the ones to help Micah get around and keep the cast dry and clean and do sponge baths and give tylenol, on top of their normal schedule. We also have no idea where we will be in three weeks to get Micah back to the orthopedic doctor. 

I couldn't get his pants back on over the cast.
So he is officially in the next size up pants.