A Lame Duckling

Waaaaah!

All babies cry, of course. They cry because they're hungry, need their diapers changed, are lonely, sad, tired, too cold or warm...

My baby has a different reason to cry.

Two days ago, we were at Granny's house for a visit. Auntie T was holding Deklan, reading something on the computer. Aunt Heather, Granny and I were standing around her, reading the same thing. Little T stood up to come to the couch to visit, and accidently tripped on a computer wire.
Heather and I caught her on her way down, but we couldn't stop her from that first initial fall. Deklan's little leg was caught between her chest and the edge of the desk.

He immediately started screaming, and I held him, and tried to calm him down. He cried for a long time, big heartbroken sobs, and I knew something was really wrong. He's such a contented baby, for him to keep crying was very unusual.

We didn't know exactly what was wrong, but there was a great big bruise on his right leg, and he definitely was hurt.

After a while he calmed down, and even started smiling again. We stayed at Granny's for a few more hours, and then it was time to go home.

At home I put him down for his nap, but a nagging feeling kept washing over me. Every time he moved his leg he cried. Every time we changed his position he cried. Something was wrong.

Daddy got home, and we decided to take him to the emergency room.

At the hospital, the doctor checked him over, and decided to put a tensor bandage around his leg to stabilize and protect it, in case something was wrong. The x-ray technicians had gone home for the day, so we made an appointment for the following morning.

That evening, Deklan wouldn't stop screaming. Nothing was helping, I couldn't do anything to comfort him. I figured he was better before the tensor bandage was put on, so I took it off. He had red lines on his poor little leg, it was wrapped too tight. Imagine having something wrapped tight around a bruise, it would hurt, wouldn't it?

Poor little baby!

After that, he calmed down, and was able to go to sleep. He slept almost straight through the night, waking up once at 1:00 am. I gave him some baby Tylenol, and he went back to sleep until Daddy's alarm clock went off at 5:00.

He was happy as a clam! He was kicking and kicking so much that he kicked his blankets right off. I was pleased, I thought his leg must just be bruised, and he'd be fine in a few days. I thought about cancelling the x-ray appointment, but decided to go, just in case something was actually wrong.

Daddy came home from work, and we went in to the hospital again. He didn't like the x-ray table, but he didn't really cry until the technician asked Daddy to hold his leg straight. That HURT. He bawled, and wasn't happy until Mommy snuggled him.

We sat in the waiting room for a few minutes, and then got moved to an exam room. The Doctor came in, then took us to a consult room, where Deklan's x-ray results were on the computer.

The side view seemed okay, everything looked normal. I'm not a Doctor, but I saw a thin white line that I thought didn't look normal, but the Doctor didn't point it out so I kept quiet.

The next frame showed the front view of the leg, along with Daddy's hands holding it straight.

"Well, that's not supposed to be there." The Doctor said.

The tibia had two cracks in it, shaped like a little W. It was definitely broken.

I was shocked, then dismayed. My poor baby! I honestly didn't believe it was broken, but there it was in front of me. I felt so guilty, thinking about how much he cried when I changed his diaper or got him dressed. No wonder!

The Doctor didn't even know if he was supposed to put a cast on such a little baby. He called the Children's Hospital to ask, and they called back and told him yes.

So my 8 week old son needed a cast.

The nurse was wonderful. She went a got a warm blanket to wrap Deklan in, and I held his hand and soothed him to sleep on the table. Mercifully, he slept through the entire process as they put a cast on his poor little leg.

When he woke up, he was upset at having such a big weight on his leg, but he wasn't crying from pain anymore. That was a huge relief for me. I could move him and change him and carry him without hurting his leg!

Poor little leg!

We had Thanksgiving Dinner to go to at Grandma's, so after we got him home and I fed him and changed him we were off! Everyone ooed and aaed over him, clucking like a bunch of broody hens. I'm sure he'll get the same treatment at Emma's birthday party tomorrow.

Such a little peanut...

The Children's Hospital will be calling us this week to set up an appointment, to check up on Deklan and see how the healing process is coming. He is so young, and this is so unusual that there will probably be 20 people in the room as Deklan gets examined, because it's a teaching hospital and something like this never happens! One for the textbooks.

Daddy keeps telling Deklan that when he's older he gets to tease Auntie Tiana about how she broke his leg. I'm looking forward to that day, with the memory of this painful experience far behind us!

Of course, we don't blame Tiana at all. It could've happened to anybody! She'll be the first one we hand Deklan to tomorrow to hold, because she's an awesome Auntie! She'll have to sign "I'm Sorry, Ducky!" on his cast, though.