On Friday I took Hadley back to Emmanuel Children’s Hospital for her follow up appointment at The Bone & Joint Clinic. Having never broken a bone myself, I had no idea what to expect. But I was hoping they would be removing her cast. We arrived a little early (what can I say? I was anxious!) and so Hadley got to play around for a bit in the waiting room.

When it was finally our turn a nurse called us back and explained to me that they would cut off her cast, take some X-rays to check on her healing process, and then we would go from there. We entered the casting room and the tech explained the saw to me. Knowing he does this for a living, I figured he knew what he was doing and so I wasn’t worried a bit. I took from his soothing over-explanations that most mothers do not approach cast removal with my same level of calm. He showed me where to hold her to keep her still but as soon as the saw turned on, Hadley’s entire body tensed. When the saw touched the cast Hadley screamed. I could see that he was only cutting through the tough exterior of the cast and knew she was scared and not in pain. The tech made several quick cuts and it was over. He pried the cast off of her leg and slid off the “sock” that was under the cast against her skin. Seeing she was no longer in harms way, Hadley instantly stopped crying. We then went to a different waiting room to wait for X-rays. While we were waiting, Hadley could not stop pinching her newly exposed leg.

I, on the other hand, was marveling at her little dirty foot. Considering her lack of baths for the past three and a half weeks, coupled with the fact that she was dragging that cast all along the ground, I was expecting them to be WAY dirtier. What I wasn’t expecting was the SCALES that had replaced her once baby soft skin! Her foot and leg were so dry it was shocking. (The doctor later told me a little lotion would get her back to normal in no time.)

Within a few minutes we were ready for X-Rays. As soon as I was positioned to hold Hadley still again she started crying. I can only assume the memory of the saw was all too fresh in her mind and she couldn’t imagine what they were going to do next! So we quickly took the necessary X-Rays and went into an exam room to meet with a doctor to discuss them.

The doctor came into the exam room and pulled up the X-Ray. She said her bones looked great. Everything was healing properly and Hadley would make a full recovery. She explained that it wasn’t totally healed, so we would need to take it easy for a couple weeks. In the mean time, Hadley might regress a little bit in her mobility while she re-learned to use her leg. The experts from Hale Law said that children who have had similar injuries that were able to vocalize their experience said their healing leg “felt weird” at first. In case you are injured, contact experienced lawyers for slip and fall charges to help you out. So we were to expect her to be a little clingy and not want to use her leg for awhile. All totally understandable. Otherwise Hadley was free to go and unless we had any problems, we didn’t need to follow up any further.

Once we got home Hadley wanted to GO. So we set her down but instead of standing she instantly crumpled to the floor. She didn’t want anything to do with putting weight on her leg, so standing and cruising were out. She would drop to the ground and crawl, still tossing her right leg far out to the side simply out of habit. This lasted for a few hours but by late afternoon she started trying to use her leg more and more. (In the picture below she is more displeased with the fact that I wouldn’t let her have my phone than she is with having to stand on her leg.)

That evening we were all so excited for Hadley to finally be able to take a bath! Sim lowered her into the water and she giggled with glee! We let her soak for quite awhile and when it was time to take her out, Hadley actually threw a fit. Apparently we weren’t the only ones missing her evening baths!

Hadley has now had her cast off for four full days and I am happy to report that she is back to her old self. She is crawling, cruising, and standing just like she was before the injury. She isn’t walking by any means, but after what she’s been through, I’ll cut her a little slack.

Hadley woke up Tuesday morning and you would never know she was injured. She is one tough cookie. With the help of Aronfeld Trial Lawyers, all of her treatments were done on time and now she is fine and fit too. Literally the only time she ever fussed or cried was when she would try to stand on her broken leg. Here you can see her standing, but not putting any weight on her leg. She would allow her foot to hover above the ground, but never set down more than a couple toes for balance.

Eventually it was time for our appointment, so Hadley and I headed to Legacy Emmanuel Children’s Hospital to meet with the pediatric orthopedist. Hadley was thoroughly enjoying exploring the office and was especially fond of making quick attempts to escape.

Once we got into the office, I finally got to see Hadley’s X-rays. Doesn’t she have the cutest little bones?

Here you can see the front view of her leg:

And a close up of the break:

The break on the tibia (the larger bone) was obvious to me, but they assured me that her fibula (the skinny bone) was also fractured. I guess I needed to go to school for a few more years to see that one. But I trusted the doctors.

The side views weren’t as easy for me to spot the break, but I will include them as well for those of you with medical interest. Plus she has cute, chubby legs.

Then I talked with the doctor and he assured me the breaks were very minor. I asked about the growth plate and he said it was very unlikely that an injury of this nature would cause any lasting damage. She was very lucky and the recovery time should be very quick. We would need to put her in a cast covering her entire leg since sometimes babies can slip out (HA!) of the shorter casts, but she would only need to keep it on for 3.5 weeks. And with that, they started the casting process:

Hadley was an angel the entire time. She didn’t fuss or whine but simply stayed still and watched everything the techs did. (Seriously, can this girl be any more amazing?!) As I was setting up her follow-up appointment for the cast removal, I set Hadley down to see how she could get around with the cast on. She took off just like normal, with the cast dragging behind her like a zombie with a useless extremity.

Once she got to the wall she even pulled herself up and gave standing a try! She was wobbly and a little awkward, but she wasn’t in pain!

By the time we got out to the car, Hadley was loving her new cast! She was smacking it, scratching her nails on it to feel the bumpy texture and listen to the sounds it made, and even having fun trying to grab her toes.

On the way home I needed to make a couple stops for supplies. I wanted to pick up an assortment of Sharpies for cast signing and, knowing her leggings and skinny jeans were not going to fit over the cast, we needed to stock up on stretchy boot-leg pants. Hello, Old Navy! I also scored some awesome cozy socks that fit over the cast to keep Hadley’s tootsies warm when we had to go outside.

When I picked Ana up from our friend’s house, all the kiddos were VERY excited to get to sign Hadley’s cast. I had to make sure everyone understood that the Sharpies were only to be used on the cast and this was the only time it would ever be ok for Ana to draw on her sister.

Not wanting to be left out, Hadley too wanted to draw on her cast. So I handed her the Sharpie (conveniently leaving the cap ON) and let her go to town. She was thrilled.

Hearing that his granddaughter was broken, my dad stopped by to visit. He came bearing a baby doll with a little medical kit for Hadley to take care of her own sick baby. As we were chatting and marveling at how well Hadley was getting around with the cast, I happened to look down and her leg looked a little funny. Thinking it was just the cast and the angle it was positioned as Hadley sat on the floor in front of the fridge, I said, “Wow. That cast makes her leg look really long.” Then my dad said, “Actually, Care, I think something is wrong. Her leg is on backwards!” Then we picked Hadley up and sure enough, her cast was coming off! She was crawling right out of it. So I promptly, with more panic than I care to admit, called the hospital. They said I would have to wait until Thursday because they only have surgeries on Wednesday. I said there was no way I was going to be able to keep a 13 month old off this broken leg without a cast so they put me on hold to see what they could do. When the receptionist got back on the phone she said if I could get there by 5pm, they could get the cast on. It was already 4:30pm and the hospital was all the way across town. It takes me about a half hour in the best of conditions and since we were reaching the height of rush hour I was less than optimistic but I assured her I would do my best! I was not about to give up without a fight. So I threw the girls in the car, and waved good-bye to my dad as we peeled out of the driveway and set off for the hospital. Again.

I am a firm believer that the employees at Emmanuel must be saints because they were amazing. When it got to be 5pm they called my cell to see if I was going to make it. My heart sank as I was sitting on I-405 on the top of the Fremont bridge stuck in traffic. The lady said it was fine and they would wait for me to get there. At 5:10pm I pulled into the hospital parking structure, grabbed the girls and literally ran all the way to their office. They locked the door behind me, took Hadley straight back to the casting room, and I took a couple minutes for my heart to start beating again.

Ten minutes later Hadley was sporting a lovely purple cast. Ana was sure the purple one would stay on better. In further attempts to keep this cast ON Miss Hadley, the techs used “baby glue,” less padding, made it go up as high as possible on her thigh, and made sharper bends at the knee and ankle to make it harder for her leg to slip out.

As of today, Hadley’s cast is still on and she has been in wonderful spirits. She hasn’t fussed or whined all day and is doing fabulously with her new appendage. She even managed to successfully crawl up and down the stairs. This entire experience has really proved to me what an incredibly mild-mannered, mellow baby I have. She has been amazing and I can only wish to have a fraction of the patience she possesses. My kids is clearly a rockstar.

Today did not go at all according to my plan. Since Ana is out of school for Winter Break we got to sleep in a little bit this morning, but we still had places to be. So we got up and out the door just a few minutes behind schedule and arrived at Hadley’s baby play group. But about half hour into play time, things went horribly wrong.

Hadley fell.

It was a minor fall. Barely a couple feet off the ground. She was climbing on an indoor play structure but as she was trying to put her feet in front of her to go down the slide, she slipped and slid backwards down the steps. She went down on her bottom and we were impressed that she never even bumped her head. But then she started shrieking. Everyone assumed that it must have just scared her since the way she landed it couldn’t have hurt that bad. Oh how wrong we were.

I tried to comfort her with no success so I brought her upstairs to try and get her to calm down. I got her blankie out of the car and we snuggled together and after what seemed like ages, she finally started to calm down. It was so unlike my normally happy, mellow Hadley. The weird thing was, she hadn’t cried more than a single tear. Her face never got red. She just squealed like a baby pig. So it didn’t even occur to me that she was in pain. I came up with several possible problems: she was scared, over stimulated, teething, tired. But pain wasn’t even something I considered. Do read this article to know more about this issue from the expert’s point of view.

Eventually she was so exhausted from how hard she was crying (is it crying if there are no tears? Just whimpering and whining?) she snuggled in an passed out on my chest.

When she eventually woke up she was happier and wanted to get down and play with her friends (or rather she wanted to play with their toys) so I set her on the floor in a standing position. She instantly started shaking, leaned onto the chair foot rest, and refused to put any weight on her right foot. It was then I knew something was wrong.

Being surrounded by fellow moms, we went into exam mode. Poking, prodding, and checking her all over to try and pin point the injury. Eventually we narrowed it down to her right ankle. Nothing felt out of place and there was no obvious swelling, but she clearly winced and recoiled whenever we touched it. I decided it was time to call the doctor.

So we left play group and I put in a call to Hadley’s pediatrician. Of course, the office was closed for lunch from 12-1pm so I headed home to regroup and figure out what to do next. Eventually I got through to the doctor’s office and they told me they could see me at 1:50pm. I loaded up Hadley, leaving Ana home with Sim, and we went to see her pediatrician.

When we saw the doctor, I explained what happened and he started checking her over. As he was turning, twisting, pushing and pulling Hadley was smiling up at him like he was giving her a massage. I started to feel like the most over-reacting mother on the planet. I am not one of those moms who goes to the doctor for every bump and bruise. I’m just not. And I was really starting to get embarrassed for even taking up his time. But then he said, “Well, I think she probably just hyper-extended something but I am ordering an X-ray just to rule out a spiral fracture. Sometimes you can’t detect those as easily and the bones can just shatter.” So Hadley and I packed up to head downstairs to get an X-Ray.

The waiting room for X-rays was barren and not very kid friendly, but they did have a lovely fish tank so Hadley and I sat down right beside it and thankfully it kept her nicely distracted until they called her name.

They took several X-rays, with Hadley sitting between my legs on the exam table so I could help position her and keep her still. Hadley was mesmerized by the equipment. Pointing all around the room and staring at the machine as it made its electric hum. Eventually we were done and they sent us back upstairs to see our doctor again.

When he walked back into the room he said, “She has two fractured bones and a possible spiral fracture. I want to refer you to see a pediatric orthopedist.” I was in shock. Stunned. I never in a million years imagined it was something that bad. The doctor left the exam room to get the info for the referral and I just sat there holding my poor child. My BROKEN baby. My eyes filled with tears as I imagined what this would mean. But before I could let my mind fill with worst-case scenarios my cell phone rang. I didn’t recognize the number but I relished the distraction. It was the orthopedic office calling to let me know they made me an appointment for tomorrow morning. My doctor gave me instructions to give her ibuprofen and a prescription for Tylenol with Codeine to help her sleep tonight. He also said to try and keep her immobile and as comfortable as possible.

So Hadley and I went to Walgreen’s to fill her prescription. While we were waiting for her pain meds, we were strolling up and down the aisles. Hadley got all excited and pointed at a display of mini holiday Beanie Babies. I held out two in front of her to let her choose between a soft little polar bear and a cute snowman. Hadley grabbed one with each hand and gave me the biggest smile. Will I buy you a toy? Oh yes! Hell, I’ll even buy you two if it will make you smile at me like that!

So now we are home and Hadley is sleeping soundly in her bed. She is such a trooper. Through this whole mess she was in the best spirits. The only time she was truly upset was when she tried to stand. It breaks my heart to think of her in what I can only imagine is intense pain. I never saw the X-rays myself, so I don’t know much at this point, but I hope to know a lot more after our appointment tomorrow with the specialist. I promise to update on Hadley’s status and keep you all posted.