Trip to the ER

I figured a trip to the ER was bound to happen sometime, since Jack is a curious kid who gets into everything. It was only a matter of time before he hurt himself. I just never thought the first time it would actually be my fault. I've never had to go to the ER for myself, never had a broken bone, never needed stitches. Oh, the irony.

So yesterday morning I was walking down the stairs holding Jack. I slipped and slid down 5 or 6 stairs on my butt. I didn't let go of Jack, and once I had stabilized myself Jack had started to scream. It looked to me like he had hit his head on the wall. He's hit his head lots of times, so I comforted him and waited for him to calm down. He normally stops crying and forgets all about it in a minute or two, but this time he didn't stop screaming. Jack has never cried for long, even as a newborn. After 15 or so minutes of trying to calm him down I started to get worried that something was seriously wrong. I called the pediatrician and as soon as I said he hit his head and was acting different than usual, they said to go straight to the ER. So off we went.

He cried the whole way there, which I was grateful for, because I thought he might have a concussion and I didn't want him to go to sleep. We got there and he didn't have any kind of a bump on his head, or any signs of a head injury at all. He just wouldn't stop screaming, which is really abnormal for him. The resident first said that it was probably nothing, and since there were no outward signs of a head injury, I should just go home and watch him for any changes. We had skipped breakfast (the fall happened first thing in the morning) so they thought he might just be hungry. He had a snack and then resumed screaming. Then the attending doc came in. He said that the cutoff for him is if a kid is acting abnormally, and I insisted that I didn't want to overreact, but that this was certainly not normal. So he ordered a CT scan.

After the CT, Derek came from school to help out. Jack had finally calmed down by now but he still wasn't his usual self. He wasn't trying to get off of my lap and explore everything like he usually does. I slowly started to put together all of the evidence of what had happened that morning. A few times I had tried to put him down to walk around to see if that would make him feel better (it usually does) but it only made him scream more. I remembered that while he was having his snack I had touched his leg and he had started to cry. So I told Derek to try standing him up. He of course screamed. We looked closer and saw that his left ankle was swollen and he cried if we touched it. I realized that instead of hitting his head, I must have landed on his leg. I have no idea why I jumped right to assuming he hit his head. Just then the resident came over and here's how the conversation went:

Resident: Well, the CT looks fine so you guys are good to go. How's he doing?

Me: I really hate to do this to you, but I think it's his ankle. Look at the swelling.

Resident: You're right, let's do an x-ray.

(After the x-ray)
Resident: Well, his leg is broken.

Yes, that's right folks, I broke my baby's leg. And I didn't figure it out until after a CT scan for a suspected head injury. I think Jack has now been exposed to more radiation than I've been exposed to in my entire life. The break is right above his ankle, a partial fracture of the lower tibia. I spent most the night crying about it. Fortunately, I think it's been harder on me than him. The worst part for me is thinking about how much his leg was hurting him, and I had no idea! I wasn't being at all careful with it, I probably bumped it when I put him in the carseat and changed his clothes. I feel terrible about that! I wish I had realized that it was his leg, not his head! Now that he's getting some pain medicine and his leg is in a cast, he seems rather unfazed by the whole thing.

They sent him home in a splint and ace wrap with instructions to come back the next day for a cast. An orthopedic surgeon saw him and reassured me that kids heal from broken bones really well, and that the break was not near the growth plates so it won't have any lasting problems. He does have to be in a bulky cast that can't get wet for 4-6 weeks. So sponge baths only and no swimming. Now for some pictures.
This is the first day, before the real cast. It breaks my heart how sad he looks.
This is shortly after the cast. He looks much happier than yesterday.
It's all downhill from here. He is fine now except for when he tries to stand up, so we're back to crawling for now. Here's to hoping for a quick and easy recovery for Jack.