The "Cast"

In July Joshua spent an evening in the ER.  After a difficult few days with first Joshua, then Abby, being quite sick, Abby was just beginning to feel a bit better when I noticed that Joshua wouldn't stand up.  He absolutely refused to bear weight on his left leg and cried if I put him down and began to move away from him.  With a little observation, it became clear it was his lower left leg hurting him. He had taken a very small tumble off the couch earlier in the day, and I was concerned that he may have in fact broken his tibia -- a typical "toddler's fracture."

Sooo... I called David, who returned a few hours early from his trip, and Joshua and I headed out to the ER.

We were grateful to find the waiting room entirely empty, and he got X-rays as soon as we were triaged.

But that somehow didn't prevent us from being there a full 7 hours! 

The doctor, "Dr. Boubles," was wonderfully sweet.  She agreed there was something clearly wrong with his lower left leg, and when his X-rays came back negative she agreed to send us home if some basic labs looking for systemic inflammation came back normal, which they did.

 Despite the late night, the evening was actually a really pleasant one with my little Joshua, who happily played and sang in the ER room until he fell asleep in my arms while they were drawing his blood for labs.   Suspicious of an occult fracture not yet showing up on X-ray, the doctor finally discharged Joshua with his leg splinted and plans to repeat X-rays in a few days.

 At home, he wasn't too bothered by the splint.

Until he found he couldn't use his favorite popper toy.  That was quite disappointing.

 

Within a few days, Joshua had resumed his usual toddling and climbing antics and was terrifying me by climbing onto stools and tables in his splint. He was falling down all the time on the floor, because he'd try to walk on the splint and it would slip out from under him.  I was so afraid he would actually fracture his femur before we got the thing off!  Thankfully, his repeat films were negative the next Wednesday, and he'd again begun bearing weight on his left leg.  We removed the splint and went home without a cast!  We never figured out exactly how he'd been hurt, and he continued to limp for a few more days, but by the end of the week he was nearly back to full speed.  And we are soooo grateful he didn't have to spend the summer in a cast!  It's good to see Joshua back to busyness as usual!