Sticks and Stones and Fractured Bones

About a month ago, Steve, Hannah and I were upstairs in the bonus room, and I noticed Hannah’s pants were dragging the floor. I asked Steve to pull up her pants, so he reached down to roll up the cuffs a bit. Hannah’s latest game is running just as fast as her little feet will carry her in the opposite direction from her mommy and daddy – especially when there is a chance we might make her sit still for more than one second. Before Steve could finish rolling her pants, Hannah tried to dart away. She turned and fell face down on the carpet. Steve and I have done a really good job of not making a big deal out of Hannah’s falls. It’s usually just a simple uh-oh, and she’s on her way. This time was different, and I could tell immediately by the sound of her cry.

For the next hour Hannah did not want me to put her down. For her to sit still in my lap for more than five seconds is a miracle, so I knew she must be hurting pretty badly. She didn’t want to walk on her left leg and cried at each attempt. We couldn’t see any swelling or bruising, so I felt a trip to the emergency room wasn’t really necessary just yet. We managed to keep her comfortable for the rest of the night and gave her some Motrin to help her rest. We would assess the situation again in the morning.

The next morning came, and Hannah still didn’t want to walk on her left leg. It was time to go to the doctor. Our wonderful pediatrician at OHPA had an opening first thing, so we took her in. Dr. Betts examined both legs and determined it was her tibia/fibula that was painful. He explained that sometimes these fractures might not show up on x-ray and we might think about waiting a couple of days to see if there was still a problem. I suggested that “while we were there” we wanted to go ahead and see if there was a glaring problem. As it turns out, the pediatrician’s office does not take x-rays. We would need to go to Vanderbilt for this procedure. While Vanderbilt is a wonderful facility, spending 6 days there with Hannah in May was enough for me.

The x-ray didn’t show any fractures, so our pediatrician suggested we give it a few days to see if she recovered on her own. Another couple of days went by, and Hannah still wasn’t back to running around the house. The pediatrician then suggested we visit Dr. Gregory at Vanderbilt for a better evaluation. Dr. Gregory examined her leg while lots of other kind people distracted Hannah with toys. With each press to her shin, Hannah started crying. Dr. Gregory determined she had a toddler’s fracture which likely occurs just exactly how we described. Steve and I had recounted the story several times now between all the nurses and doctors we’d seen, and each time I felt a little scrutiny from the medical staff. Maybe I imagined it, but I was sure there were a few raised eyebrows when we told our story. I just prayed they would believe it was too weird to be made up, and if they looked at our call log to OHPA, they would see that we panicked over every sniffle with Hannah.

Finally, a couple of weeks ago, we went back to Vanderbilt for follow-up x-rays. This time, the doctor was able to see the new bone on the x-ray and confirmed his earlier diagnosis. He drew an arrow to help us see where the fracture was, but to my eye, it all looks the same. I guess that’s why he can charge us $1,000 to point it out to us.

I’m just glad our little monkey is back to climbing her way around the house again.