6Friday, July 22nd, 2011 was a very eventful day. This was the day that Jaelyn learned to climb out of her crib. She did it so gracefully. That evening we were school shopping for the boys at Kohls when she climbed out of the stroller type of cart and took off running. James naturally (because we always ask him to) went chasing after his sister. This occasion he tackled her to stop her from getting away. Probably not the first time that he has done this but the first time she screamed in agony instead of the typical cry, just enough to get him in trouble. She was immediately limping and was begging to be held. Next time we put her down she went straight to crawling. She was miserable. That is when we decided to take her to Goodnight Pediatrics, an Urgent Care facility for kids. At the time, I did not think much of it, but after leaving, going to sleep and waking up the next morning, I became more and more upset and what poor attention and care they gave to Jaelyn. (Side note- I will never go back there.) On Sunday evening after still not walking all weekend and wearing the poor splint that Goodnight Pediatrics put on her, I called her pediatricians office and spoke to the pediatrician on call. She informed me that breaks usually do not show up right away in children so she could have a break and they were not able to see it. She asked me to bring her in the following morning (Monday).
So here we are July 25th, 2011. The day went like this:
I woke at 6AM and began counting down the minutes until the alarm went off on my phone at 7:29 - the Dr. office starts taking calls at 7:30
7:29AM - I called the Dr. I am pretty sure I was their first phone call of the day. Her appointment was set for 8:20AM
Left the house at 7:37 - had forty minutes to get her to an appointment at an office one hour away - I did it in 45 - I was not going to miss this appointment I had waited ALL weekend for.
8:30AM - We saw Dr. Horlick, she reviewed the X-Rays taken from Friday night. She told me she believes there is a fracture in her Fibula. They scheduled us an appointment to see Dr. Domer at Arizona Orthopeadic Associates.
10AM - arrived back at home.
12PM left for her appointment at the Orthopeadic Doctor
12:45 - Exited off the Interstate to the Dr. office - Jaely fell asleep
12:50 - We arrived for our 1:15 appointment. I had to wake her up. We sat in the waiting room for over an hour.
2PM- We were finally seen by the Dr. I explained to them my weekend, Goodnight Pediatrics, calling the Pediatrician on call Sunday night, seeing the Pediatrician that morning, how Jaelyn has not walked. He reviewed the JPEG version of the X-Rays and confirmed they were not a very good quality of the image and it was hard to see anything. He explained to me that usually what happens is initial X-Rays are taken and the break does not show up. Then, the parents wait another week to bring their child back in and new X-Rays are taken. By then they could see where there was a break but the healing process has already begun. He watched her try to walk and felt around her leg. He could nor confirm or deny whether her leg was broken. He told me if it were him then he would put his daughter in a stroller for a week and see if she gets any better. That was the most horrible news I had heard all weekend. He apparently does not have the same active 20 month old that I have. Then, he went on to say that it would be easier for him to bring his daughter back in to cast her himself than for me to bring my daughter back in. He told me they could cast her if I wanted them to. I asked about the healing process. If it was broken, would it heal OK without a cast? He told me that it "probably" would and if it did not, it would "probably" fix itself later. "Probably" was not good enough for me. I told him I would feel more comfortable if she had a cast. I was pretty unhappy that I was given the choice. I would not have taken her to a professional, waited for over and hour to see him, if the option to put a cast on her and determine whether or not I thought her leg was broken was a decision that was up to me to make. BUT I was not walking out of there feeling like I did after I left Goodnight Pediatrics. My Pediatrician, whom I LOVE, told me she saw a fracture - I am going with her gut and mine and she is getting a cast.
The man who put the cast on her did an amazing job and was full of information!! She did not cry a wink. It was almost as if she was getting a massage. I was so proud of her. She picked the pink color with sparkles... OK I picked pink with sparkles. So far she isn't too terribly mad at me for having them put the cast on, but she is not very comfortable either.
Here she is below in her princess cast :).
I got the whole run down on her cast. It absolutely cannot get wet, but now CVS and Walgreens both make cast covers that she can bathe in. The most important thing is to make sure that she does not put anything down her cast. He made it clear that cast VS skin, cast wins. They are now made of fiberglass- not plaster like before. The inner material is all hypoallergenic and casts no longer itch. He told me to ignore anything that any of the older generation has to tell me about casts because it is no longer true - haha!
I don't think the boys have realized this yet, but she gets full access to the TV whenever she wants - here they are watching Blue's Clues with her :)
Jaelyn will have the cast on for about 3 1/2 weeks. She gets it removed on Friday, August 19th. Her VCUG procedure is schedule for August 16th. I guess she will be wearing her cast to the hospital that day - my poor baby girl!
