On Saturday Christopher (our 2 yr. old) was outside playing in the backyard with our other kids and fell and hurt his leg. He cried on and off for most of the night and wouldn't walk or even stand on his leg but we didn't see any swelling, so we somewhat thought he just badly pulled a muscle/tendon or had a sprain.
On Sunday afternoon, we decided to take him to the urgent care and they took X-rays and found that he has a spiral fracture on his tibia (i.e. - the larger bone in the leg), which means he has a broken leg. They put his leg in a splint and told us to contact an orthopedic surgeon this week.
Today, I made an appointment early (and actually got in for this afternoon!) to see a pediatric orthopedist and the Dr. said that he has to be in long leg cast (goes from toe to uppermost part of thigh) for 4 1/2 weeks and then we'll come back and take more X-rays to determine if he'll need a short cast put on. If it's healed properly, then we can just remove the long cast and work on strengthening his muscles again. If not, then he'll have the short cast put on. Then we'll come back in about 6 months to take more X-rays to determine if his growth plate (the tissue in between the tibia bone and the ankle bone) was damaged, which is what helps his leg grow. So hopefully that won't be the case, but the dr. was optimistic about that so that's good.
Thankfully Christopher seems much happier with the cast on, I'm guessing because every movement doesn't seem as painful. He's been a trooper!
Here's a picture I took today as we were leaving the Dr...he's got a green bean leg!
Thank goodness that kids are so resilient!
Update 10/13 - Here are few more pictures:) After dinner last night, I set him down on the floor in his room to play with his trains so I could go clean up. A few minutes later, here he comes doing the army crawl out of his room trying to find us (not even 4 hours after getting his cast on)! He sure is determined! I guess I was naive to think he'd stay there for a while. I'm thankful for the smile on his face:)
On Sunday afternoon, we decided to take him to the urgent care and they took X-rays and found that he has a spiral fracture on his tibia (i.e. - the larger bone in the leg), which means he has a broken leg. They put his leg in a splint and told us to contact an orthopedic surgeon this week.
Today, I made an appointment early (and actually got in for this afternoon!) to see a pediatric orthopedist and the Dr. said that he has to be in long leg cast (goes from toe to uppermost part of thigh) for 4 1/2 weeks and then we'll come back and take more X-rays to determine if he'll need a short cast put on. If it's healed properly, then we can just remove the long cast and work on strengthening his muscles again. If not, then he'll have the short cast put on. Then we'll come back in about 6 months to take more X-rays to determine if his growth plate (the tissue in between the tibia bone and the ankle bone) was damaged, which is what helps his leg grow. So hopefully that won't be the case, but the dr. was optimistic about that so that's good.
Thankfully Christopher seems much happier with the cast on, I'm guessing because every movement doesn't seem as painful. He's been a trooper!
Here's a picture I took today as we were leaving the Dr...he's got a green bean leg!
Thank goodness that kids are so resilient!
Update 10/13 - Here are few more pictures:) After dinner last night, I set him down on the floor in his room to play with his trains so I could go clean up. A few minutes later, here he comes doing the army crawl out of his room trying to find us (not even 4 hours after getting his cast on)! He sure is determined! I guess I was naive to think he'd stay there for a while. I'm thankful for the smile on his face:)
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