Fractured Leg

We had a good long run without a (known) fracture.  

This is Isaiah's face when he thinks of fractures. 

On Friday, we had a great morning, including water therapy.  Fridays can be rough for Isaiah because he goes down two hours late for nap due to our water therapy schedule.  Typically after water therapy I try to quickly get Isaiah home, in the bath to wash the chlorine off, give him a bottle of milk, and get him to bed.

This picture is from Saturday morning when Isaiah was feeding himself. :) Hooray to feeding himself!

Isaiah was already crying for milk and was so very exhausted after his bath, and as I was snapping the crotch of his clothes, I bumped his leg, and that cry really started.

I tried to tell myself it was an over-reaction because he was exhausted.  I warmed up him milk, gently picked him up off of our bed, and gave his milk in his glider per usual.  He calmed down once his belly was full.  Everything seemed like a normal Friday.

I've had a lot of practice this weekend with splinting Isaiah's leg and using different splinting materials...given that he apparently likes to pee all over his splint when I am changing out the pad in his diaper or rip off certain materials and try to eat them when I'm not looking.  Cool.  (Yup, I said pad.  In order to avoid lifting his hip and causing pain, I put a pad in his diaper to catch the urine.  It works really well.  That way I only have to change his diaper if he has a poopy diaper or misses the pad.) 

Isaiah woke up an hour into his nap screaming his head off, but I went into his room, rubbed his back, adjusted his blankets, and put his music back on and he fell right back to sleep.

After nap, I brought him into the dining room to his high chair, and when I went to separate his legs to get into his seat, he screamed out...Oh my aching heart.  I immediately froze and instead brought him to his playmat on the floor.

I came to terms with it- fracture.  It's a fracture.  I needed to figure out where in his leg that it was so I could splint him and help alleviate the pain.

I turned on Mickey and just tried to calm him down. I noticed he wasn't really moving his leg.  Once he was smiling at Mickey, I squeezed his leg, starting at the foot and working my way up.  I always start the squeezes really super light and if Isaiah doesn't react, I increase pressure a bit before moving on to another spot...when I got to right below his knee, he tensed up and grunted at me.  When I squeezed again to be sure, he cried out.  I got his pain meds, splinting materials, and emailed Dr. B.  I also chatted with two loving OI mommas to go over the basics of what I needed to do.

About 20 minutes after I gave him his meds, I wrapped Isaiah's leg from his toes to his waist* to stifle any movement of his leg.  Movement can equal pain.  If Isaiah had a rod in his femur of that leg, I'd only have to splint the lower half of his leg, but with the bowing of his femur, splinting just that portion then puts his femur at risk and I don't think Isaiah wants any more pain.

Once Isaiah was all wrapped up, things have basically been back to normal.  His ortho is in today at DuPont if I need to talk with him or think Isaiah needs to be seen, but I think he's doing well healing at home.  If I thought the fracture was displaced, I'd already have an appointment for today but since he's been his normally smiling self, I think we're making the right call.

We had plans this weekend, and because Isaiah was handling things so well, we didn't have to cancel any of them. :)  We saw family and celebrated our cousin who just graduated law school. :)  We blew bubbles outside and went for walks.  We played in the living room, just sometimes on the bean bag for comfort.

OI isn't stopping us from our life.  It is so important to Dave and I to teach Isaiah now that if we can get his pain under control, if I can get him splinted so his fractured bone has the support to heal, we will continue on with our days like normal.  There are fractures that give Isaiah extra TV time and cuddles, but thankfully this one is minimal and will be healed pronto.


*So, I'd love to show you Isaiah's splint...but you usually won't see a full blown shot of Isaiah's splints on the internet....there are some weirdos in the world with cast fetishes and well, that just freaks me out.  And yep, I am totally for real.