Broken Leg

12 months old is too young to break a leg... but alas, it happened.  And luckily, it wasn't worse than it could have been.  On Friday, September 20th around 3pm, Alex, Claire and I were on the stairs. Alex was closer to the top, and Claire and I were closer to the bottom.  Claire and I were talking and watching Alex practice going down the stairs backwards.  He went down a few steps perfectly, and we were cheering him on.  I had a feeling to get closer, but of course, it's too 'still and small' for me sometimes so I stayed where I was.  Alex was standing and holding onto the stair just above when he let go and fell straight backwards, landing on his bum, flipping over landing on his head/neck, twisting slightly and landing on his leg/knee, and then I caught him on the 4th step laying on his back.  It happened so fast, was only 3 full steps that he fell, but I could tell by the way he fell it was bad and by how bad he was crying. 

He wouldn't calm down, I took him outside, got him a bottle, tried to calm him down but he just couldn't get comfortable.  I thought it was his neck or head so I called the doctor and told them what happened and they told me some signs to watch for for head trauma and told me to put him down for a nap and if he woke up screaming, to bring him right in.  So I laid him down and he fell asleep (he's a good sleeper but was also exhausted from so much crying).  He slept for a good 1.5 hours and then when he woke up, he wasn't crying.  I could tell he wasn't himself, was more fussy and wanted to just lay on me instead of do anything.  My friend Ashley came over for a play date we had planned, so I took the kids outside to play.  As I was telling Ashley what happened, I tried to stand Alex up and he wouldn't.  He kept his left food bent like a flamingo and cried when I tried to straighten it.  That's when I knew it was his leg.  So Ashley watched Claire while I took him to Insta Care.  I had a photo shoot planned that night so I called and canceled it. 

When we got there around 5:30pm, there was a 2 hour wait.  I had my Electric Run that night at 8pm, and Ben was out of town without reception (of course), so I put Alex's name on the list and went home.  I watched Alex closely for the next hour.  He just wanted to lay on me and sleep. He wasn't crying or in pain anymore, so I thought maybe it's just a sprain.  There wasn't any swelling and the only time he hurt was when I tried to straighten it.  I thought maybe it was a ligament/tendon, for SURE not a break.  He was soo tired by 7pm that I gave him some pain meds and put him down for bed.  He is a serious sleeper, whether he's sick or not, this kid sleeps so I knew that he'd be fine for the night.  I had the sitter still come and left for my Electric Run.

He slept fine all night (14 hours) without a squeak.  In the morning, I called again, asked Insta Care what they would do and they said they would take an X-Ray.  I told them his one-year check up happened to be on Monday and we decided to just wait until then to have my doctor look at him.  We also decided that some time would be good to watch him and his leg.  If it was a sprain, he'd be doing a lot better on Sunday.  So Saturday I just watched him.  He was totally fine again as long as he wasn't putting weight on it.  He crawled, ate, played, and slept just fine.  When he stood, he would just look like this: 

Sunday we continued to watch him but noticed there wasn't ANY improvement as far as putting weight on it goes.  Again, he was his normal, happy self all day.  He didn't fuss or cry more than usual. He just was our little flamingo.  

Monday morning after feeling down his leg, I noticed that it was firmer and warmer above his left ankle and I sent this picture to my mom: 

I was pointing right where I thought the problem was (which turned out to be spot on).  We went to his doctor appointment and the doctor checked it out.  He then turned to us and said the dreaded words: "I think it's definitely broken."  Oh our hearts sunk.  We felt so bad.  He sent us to the hospital to get it X-rayed.  Here he is waiting to go in:

And Monday evening, we got the results:  Both his Tibia and Fiblua were broken.  The report said "Buckle Fractures" which is common among children, since their bones are more like live-tree branches and are soft.  

We got an appointment with Primary Children's cast clinic for Wednesday and on Tuesday we took him back to his pediatrician to get a splint to hold it in place until he could get a cast on. He did not like the splint.  It was a little too tight and put pressure on his leg.  He was very sad and upset with it on.  And come to find out, it had rubbed his heal almost raw when we took it off at Primary's.  

So Wednesday, off to Primary's we went and got a cute green cast on.  He was a champ (mostly because he was hungry and I planned it so he'd be downing his bottle):

The orthopedic doctor there said that he wasn't worried about his bones at all, that it missed his growth plates and because their bones are so soft, it was aligned just fine and would heal perfectly.  Fewf.   He also said that had we had an x-ray sooner to find out it was broken, they typically have you wait a couple of days anyways to get the swelling down before putting a cast on.  That was also good news.  He said the key to knowing a break in the future is the weight issue, if he still isn't putting weight on it after 24 hours, then it's not just a sprain.  

Ever since we got his cast, he's been back to normal! He can put weight on it and it doesn't bother him at all.  He loves to bang it on things.  

He's our little champ!  We are grateful he is such a great baby and that it wasn't worse than it could have been.  I think every parent should be allowed more than 3 steps to fall, but whatever!  At least it's the cutest cast we've ever seen!