MY FEEP!

C-Rex jumped off the couch at daycare. The sitter was just across the room cleaning up from lunch, and CR and another boy were both standing on the couch. She told them they needed to sit down or get off, and they both jumped off the couch. CR hit the floor hard - but on his feet, gave a yell and started screaming. She called me right away, (I could hear him screaming in the background) and I told her to watch it for a while and call me if he were still crying in 30min. She called back 15min later and said she thought it was getting worse and asked if I would be OK with her giving him some Tylenol. I said yes.

So I cut my errands short and hurried back to get him. She had finally calmed him down a bit, but he of course started crying again as soon as he saw me. We got him to the doctor, but while we were sitting and waiting I was looking at his foot and ankle - wiggling them around - and nothing seemed swollen or discolored. Nothing looked wrong, but when I put him on the floor he curled his left foot under his bum and cried out, "my feep! my feep!" The doctor came in and asked me to take off his pants so he could look at his whole leg. He took both legs and bent them up and down, stating, "his hips are OK, and his knees. His thighbone is good. His ankle and toes and all of the bones in his feet" (this as he carefully fingered each bone in turn). Then he took the boy's calf in his hands - firmly but gently - and CR flipped out, screaming, "Hey! TOP IT! TOP IT! Owie! My feep!!"

The doctor said he was pretty sure it was broken and sent us to the hospital for an x-ray. At the hospital the admissions girl was surly and rude. She couldn't find the order for the x-ray and kept us sitting there for 20min. Finally she got everything she needed and sent us over to radiology. They took the films - C-Rex hated it b/c he had to hold his leg out straight and not move. Plus he was not digging the little lead apron they wanted to cover his boy bits with. I had to hold him down for the pictures, but we got through it. Then we waited for the films to be read and for further instructions from the doctor. The word finally comes down that, yes, he has a broken leg. In fact, he has *two* broken bones. The verdict is "non-displaced buckle fracture of the tibia and the fibula."

All this time the boy's mood is surprisingly upbeat considering the fact that he has two broken bones and has not had a nap.
Finally we went back to the doctor's office where we waited another million years and finally ended up with a blue cast that goes from his mid-thigh down to his toes. The casting process was the worst part of the day. He had to be held down by two people (me and a medical student) while the nurse and the doctor wrapped his leg in the casting material. He screamed and tried to thrash and kick, and we were holding him down! It seemed like it was never going to end!

Of course, it did, but that only left me with a very unhappy boy with a massive new weight holding him down. He wanted it OFF and tried and tried and TRIED, crying "pease! pease! I need on!" (He doesn't get the difference between off and on all that well).

He's sleeping now, but I don't know what kind of a night I've got ahead of me. By the end of the day he was crawling around well enough, but he's still pretty ticked that he can't stand up. He's got to have the cast on for at least four and a half weeks, and I can't bathe him in the meantime. I guess he'll be a bit ripe for the next month or so.

So that's my saga. Honestly, I'm surprised it took him this long to end up at the hospital, as I've been expecting it for the last year or so - ever since he became mobile, really. I thought it would be a cracked open skull, but a broken bone is just as good.

I'm exhausted - it's been a LONG, crazy day.