Saturday, June 11, 2011

Broken Leg

Summer is off to an official start, I know because:

1) school is out
2) we had a neighborhood ice cream party &
3) we've got a toddler with a broken leg


Hyrum was our first 2 year old toddler with a broken leg in 2005. 2 year old Abi followed suit with her broken leg in 2010. Now, almost 2 year old Lily is paying her toddler dues. (I broke my arm when I was 2 too!)

Melodie was nicely playing with her and watching her outside on the trampoline. Lily was laughing hard when Mel would bounce the trampoline to make her fall. Melodie was having too much fun doing it, got carried away with her bouncing force, and bounced her on purpose, breaking her leg on accident. I heard Lily crying and it wasn't a normal fussy or "You're bugging me" cry, I went out, asked Mel what happened, to which she was mute. Finally got it out of her that she bounced Lily, Lily wouldn't walk or put weight on her left leg, I go to Corey to discuss options.

We looked up the Urgent care - it was 8:00 and they were open until 9, so Corey took her in. After a waiting room wait and several x-rays, Lily and Corey came home 2+ hours later with a little ankle splint to which she was totally freaking out. Looked like a bad diagnosis, but Corey said she looks okay and was totally fine and happy at the clinic until they put her on the cold metal table for the x-rays. They couldn't see a break, but thought the ankle looked a little swollen so wrapped that. She fussed and fussed at night time, pointing at her knee and saying "hur" (hurt) so I finally took off the splint cause she wasn't going to be putting weight on it at night time, hoping that would help her relax and she and I could get some sleep. Worked a little bit. We were down in the recliner at 3 a.m. watching Rapunzel, I snoozed with her on my lap and she watched, finally tired enough around 4:15 that she was ready for some shut eye, so we turned it off and slept in the chair until the sun woke us up. I put her upstairs in bed with Corey and got the other kids out the door for their last day of school. Lily and I had lots of bonding time the rest of the day with me just holding her and us taking naps. We joined the ice cream party at 3:00. Lily in her wheelchair (stroller). Thursday morning the clinic called - the radiologist looked at the x-rays and did see a small fracture in the bone below the knee. So I scheduled an appointment at the Fracture Clinic at Primary Childrens for next Wednesday (they only put on casts on Wednesdays here in Utah. I think it's a little strange, but I guess it's the system that works for them. But if they're not in a hurry, what's the big deal of even getting one?)


I've been pondering that question and thinking to myself: Lily hasn't been wearing the ankle splint anyway, won't let me wrap her knee, is doing fine sitting on the couch watching movies all day or sitting in her high chair. She was even crawling around today and bends her knees and kneels down as you can see above. She just came in here and pulled herself up to the chair and stood next to me, putting most of the weight on her right leg, but she's just like a pre-walking toddler right now. I think the break is really small since there wasn't any swelling and the doctor didn't notice it at first... it doesn't seem to be bothering her at all. Should I still take her in on Wednesday for the cast, or should I just keep doing what we're doing while we wait for her appointment, and just keep her off of it and not bother with the $700 cast?

Probably not very responsible parenting on my part that I'm considering not bothering with the cast, huh. Well, that's how I my brain malfunctions with 7 of these kids working on me all day I guess. :) I'm going on week 27 of my pregnancy and have only seen my doctor once since I've been here - I keep pushing back my appointment and am going to ask him when I go if we can just call it good until I deliver - I know the routine, so does he, (this is his 6th time delivering a baby for me) I'll call him when it's time. We'll see if he goes for it! Hopefully he will - don't know how I can get away with all the kids, and I'm not taking them with me. I don't do doctor appointments with kids, unless they're the one's being seen (took 5 of them in for the Bronchitis visit May 16th) but then the medicine was SOOO expensive - I turned in 6 prescriptions but only bought 2, Hyrum's Augmentin was going to be $60! I bought Lily's and Abi's which were only $40 each, and since they seemed to be the worst, the other 3 kids just had to toughen it out and they did great. Like I said, that's me and my lax parenting (but just when it come to medical stuff).

7 comments:

  1. This is so funny! Our 2 yr old, Ben, broke his leg this last week. A heavy desk fell on him and gave him a green stick fracture in his femur, just above the knee. It happened last Friday and they wouldn't put a cast on it till Wednesday. (Maybe your right about the Utah cast on Wed thing.) He was crawling around in his splint and trying to do everything normal. When we took him in Wed they told us that we could opt not to put a cast on it, if we could keep him down. HE'S TWO!! It has the possibility of become a full break (if he jumps out of a tree or a sister jumps on him) and then he would be in a spika hip cast, which would drive him INSANE! So... we opted for a long leg cast, not for healing purposes but more for safety ones. On the up side, they told us he would have to be in it for 6 weeks when we were in the ER, but it will only be 3! He has been out in the yard kicking soccer balls and standing on chairs. He is already wearing out the bottom of the cast and it has only been 3 days. I hope it makes it :)
    We usually don't take our kids into the Dr. either, but I guess this is part of having 6 kids!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Well I guess Mikey can join the broken bone club this week too. He broke his foot and he's in a boot now but we were referred to an orthopedic surgeon because the break is on his growth plate. That's wed and I'm betting he'll probably get a cast. I'm like you, he seems to be doing just fine with the boot does he really need a cast? Poor little Lily though.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Maybe it's a Hibbert thing. Things like that happen and I always debate as to whether or not we should go to the doctor and stress about how much money it's going to cost. My kids have to toughen out a lot of things.

    ReplyDelete
  4. None of my kids, to date, have had a cast. We've had stitches, but no broken bones. Pretty lucky, eh?
    And about your doctor visits - you can't NOT see your doc till you deliver, you are CRAZY! They have to measure you, check urine, bp, etc, etc. You need to take care of yourself & that baby! Doesn't matter how many you've had - I think that can actually makes the risks worse. C'mon Tiff!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I was just remembering your cast on your leg while at camp. The leg hair was so long!!! (and smelly) The garbage bag covering the cast worked pretty good. It made camp have a lot more giggles! Fun Fun....and pig pig is right...take care of yourself! (Jon is always telling me to go to the dr. or atleast make the free phone call to the nurse. I just hate them too!)

    ReplyDelete
  6. My .o2 on the ob thing. . . I haven't seen the doctor at all for 3 of my 5 babies. And they were born at home with just my husband and I. One over 10 lbs and one posterior. Pregnancy is a natural event, not a medical procedure.

    ReplyDelete
  7. That was a big baby., My nephew was over ten pounds, and he had a club foot and then got to hold him in his cast with his toes wiggling.

    ReplyDelete