My sweet Annie.
Wednesday morning I was getting ready and putting away laundry, in my room. Elizabeth, Emily, and Annie were playing in the bathroom together. At some point, Annie ventured to the stairs and... attempted to crawl down them and instead, tumbled. I forgot to latch the gate.
Mommy guilt.
I didn't hear her falling, but I heard her cry when she landed at the bottom with one little arm stuck under her. I ran down the steps, with no sign of head/neck injury, scooped her up and consoled her. Her left arm appeared to be hurt initially. She was holding it back a bit, but ate breakfast with that hand and seemed to have decent range of motion. I decided to watch her through that day and she slowly regained more and more use of it. I put her down for her afternoon nap and she slept well. I went in to get her when I heard her crying after nap... She was standing up in her crib and was in pain.
I realized then that her leg was swollen. I put a call into the pediatrician and talked to a nurse who said go to the ER, but ultimately decided to wait out an ER visit because she (for the first time that day) crawled on it and didn't seem in acute pain. Suddenly, it seemed like less of an emergency than it was moments before. I gave her Tylenol and the evening was fine and she went to sleep easily.
Thursday morning the swelling was down and I could pinpoint what was wrong: her ankle. Her ankle was visible swollen and she was extremely hesitant to put any weight on it. Again, I did a "wait and see." I talked to a few people, as did Jim, to try to find the best game plan.
We could:
- Take her into the pediatrician who would say "Yes something is wrong" and refer us on.
- Take her to the ER who would confirm what was wrong, but the co-pay is high, and they would refer us on to a orthopedic anyway. At this point, it wasn't an emergency. She was happy and, though something was wrong, it wasn't emergent.
- Take her to a pediatric orthopedic, which we may have to wait to get into, but would get answers and it would be a one stop shop.
I called into the pediatric orthopedic Thursday afternoon and they could get me in the following day. Sold.
The appointment was this afternoon. My dad came over to watch the bigger 4 and Annie and I headed out to the doctor.
After the wait, we went back into a room and the nurse palpated her leg and ankle and ordered x-rays to see if there was a bone issue. There was definitely acute pain when she pressed under her ankle.
The x-ray tech took us back right away. Annie was not a fan at all, but she stopped crying as soon as the x-rays were over.
Dr. B came in minutes later and asked how she fell. I explained the story and he said "Yep, each one of my kids had done that fall."
Holy relief, Batman. I mean, I know an orthopedic surgeon sees all kinds of crazy injuries, but my mommy guilt left when he said that. Kids fall down the steps. I know that. All mine have at one point, but not this young and never sustaining an injury. Dr. B was very chill and calm. I think we could be friends.
Then he said "It's bound to happen sometime" and he showed me her film.
See the teeny tiny little hill/bump where the rest of the bone is flat? That's a small break. She slightly fractured her tibia, just above her ankle. In essence, my baby broke her ankle.
Dr. B. explained that for this type of break, the best thing to do is "benign neglect." Basically, you leave the foot alone and it will heal on its own. Annie will put pressure on and use the foot as it heals. He said she knows what it can tolerate and she will know when it's ready to stand on, etc.
A cast would have been an option, but he said it could cause more problems with skin ulcers and toting her around in a cast would be an issue in itself. He was confident that it would heal without intervention. He doesn't even need to see us back AND when he asked if it had been seen earlier that week or had it wrapped, etc, I admitted that he was the first place we took her. He replied with "Good! That was the perfect call" which put my mind at ease over watching it for two days before acting on a game-plan.
So miss Annelise has a small break in her lower leg, by her ankle. Benign neglect will let it heal and the gate at the top of the steps won't be forgotten again.
We can officially check off "broken bone" from the list of milestones.
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