17 months later

I’ve had 3 people this week post something, so it must be time for an update.  Joan, if you’re like I was, you probably did a mental countdown of the days all the time. 

I also just posted the comment that Andy made, because it’s generally always a good idea to get a second opinion (my thoughts at least are, if the situation allows the time for a second opinion, then two heads are better than one).

It’s been 17 months since our son first broke his leg (February 2008) and he’s actually had some unexpected things happen that were positive.  He was born premature, and from birth he had never even climbed on to the growth chart – not 10%, not 5%…not even 3%.  Meaning out of all the boys his age, at least 98% of them were taller than him.

I have no idea at all if this is connected and am not suggesting it is…  But when he went in for his 5 year well visit this year – long after his broken bone – for the first time in his life he not only made the chart, but actually went from 0 to 10%!  That was a huge accomplishment.  I know I was told is broken bone would actually grow a little faster so that doesn’t explain the rest of him.

Maybe it was just good timing.

Sherrill, I am so glad my blog was able to help!  Someone asked me yesterday if he had learned a sense of fear as a result of his break.  I’m actually concerned about just the opposite – he just has no fear at all.  He was jumping in the pool and was so close to the edge, we thought he was going to crack his head when he dived in.  And yet he was just oblivious to how close he came.  In the meantime, the parents nearby – men and women alike – were shouting out that he was scaring us half to death!  🙂

We had a remote keypad put on a door the other day in case of emergencies.  I told our older daughter that given his daredevil personality, I suspect this may not be the last broken bone, so if she gets a text message from me in the middle of the school day – he starts kindergarten in less than 2 weeks – that she needs to expect we’re back at Texas Children’s again! 

No seriously, you can’t live life that way.  But it was a case of prepare for the worst and expect the best.

second opinion

Hello,i founded your site when I was researching about kids with broken femurs.On the 24th of Jun.’09 my son,Nolan (33 months),fell off his bunk bed while playing with his brother and his cousin,I lefted them alone for 2 minutes to fix a corner of the computer desk so they wont bump their heads on it….then i heard the most horrible sound i’ve ever heard and found him laying on top of the bottom rail,as soon as i picked him up i saw a lump on his right thigh and felt the bone.he was brought to the E.R. for x-rays and it was broken at the midshaft.

After he was put in a spica cast..we followed up with an Ortho. and the doctor told us he needed traction to realigne his bone for a better angle(the angulation was at 25-30 degrees)…the method is horrible..he would not be able to move while they put weights to stretch the bone,using a screw the size of a pencil put in above the knee.My wife and I was horrified to even think of the pain he has to go through and that we cant hold him for

2 weeks!!! We instead, wanted a second opinion and thank GOD we did!!!Our other Ortho.(one of the top ortho. in the midwest)said nothing about realigment. We are so happy he doesnt need that surgery!!The point im trying to make is that maybe you should post this on your site so parents can make the decisions with other doctors opinions.Anyways, I just wanted to let you know that you guys are wonderful parents,and your kids are beautiful!!! I know your site has helped alot of parents dealing with the same horrible ordeal.

Can you please tell me how your son is doing now and if he has any shortening or lenghting of his injuried leg or any other complications now?Im just so worry that he will walk with a limp or other complications.

Renee

Renee, I just saw your comment on my “about me” page.  Wow!  You know, I have to say, in all this time I’ve never met another parent whose child was in the cast past 8 weeks like our son was.  I know it’s generally tied to the age of the child so maybe it’s just more common for 2 and 3 year olds to break their leg?  I don’t know.

April 20th…I was just doing the math in my head – less than a week!  I’m sure you can hardly wait at this point.  I think probably the most appropriate piece of advice I could give is probably just to manage expectations for everyone.  Actually, more for the parents than your son.

In our case at least, I had all these ideas of how the day was going to go and I built it up to be the best day ever.  Don’t get me wrong – I was so very grateful to have him out of the cast.  But the journey to walking, and then running, and eventually jumping – it was weeks.

Time and space help so much.  I was telling someone on Sunday what a difference it was for me from a year ago Easter.  For some reason, just seeing him miss everything related to that week was just especially difficult for me.  This year, nothing extra special happened but in a way, I was glad it was an “usual” holiday because that gave me the ability to not be in a valley or on a mountain.  But instead, just be able to look both to the past and see everything that we had a year later.  And I think it was probably oneof the most meaningful Easter holidays I’ve ever had as a result of where we were a year ago.

Here’s a story from just last night.  Our son is going through a growth spurt right now (yay!  love those!) and when he does that, he tends to not sleep well.  It was 3am this morning and suddenly the lights in our bedroom flipped on.

There was our 5-year old, standing on top of the dresser where he had climbed up onto in the dark so he could turn on our lights.  I heard myself telling him to get down or he’d break his leg falling.  I hope I stop saying that sooner rather than later! 

Wishing you all the best next week, and I hope you have a smooth transition.

1 year later

It’s really been 13 months, but I think this picture says a lot. One thing in particular our son gained, when he lost use of his leg, was strength in his upper body.

Crawling around in a spica cast for over 2 months will do that. He was active in gymnastics before the break, and was eager to get back to it. We never discouraged his activity and as it turns out, he really built a lot of upper body strength from having the cast.

I took this photo today at the park – March 16th. Exactly 13 months after he had the cast put on. He can do a handstand, cartwheel, obviously the rings as well.

Tickling doesn’t stand a chance of him losing his grip and in fact, his core muscles are stronger than ever. So there really was something good that came out of the ordeal!

Owen

I added a link to Life with Owen to the right – he broke his leg on November 3rd.

Sally

Sally wrote:

Thank you for posting your story. We are in week 4 of our nightmare. He is having horrible muscle spasms at night. They suspect electrolite imbalance is causing the spasms. The electrolite imbalance was caused by the enemas he had after getting impacted. He got impacted because of the pain meds. When his stomach distended from constipation, the cast was too tight & caused his intestines to shut down. They had to cut it off & recast him. His neck was out from the casting table & we had to take him to a chiropractor because he was in severe pain in his neck, but one adjustment & it was totally resolved. So we are still dealing with GI problems & he has to take laxitives to go & still has horrible muscle spasms. We get 4 week xrays tomorrow. Dr says if he sees enough new bone he will remove it at 4 weeks. He is 3 & his break isn’t as severe as your 4 year old’s was, so we are hoping for the best. He has both legs completely cast to the toes. We can’t deal with 2 more weeks of this. We are really at the end of our rope with the stress & all his suffering. Did I mention we have a baby who is 3 months old!

Oh my gosh Sally.  I am so sorry; that is really an ordeal.  We had a hard enough time with the nightmares; the muscle spasms and everything related sounds like a pretty rough go of it.  I remember counting down weeks when we started, but I have to admit by the time we got down to 2 weeks or week and a half, I started counting down by days instead.

Do you have some outside help?  Most of the time I didn’t want to leave him anywhere, with anyone, but I did have moments where it helped to either leave him with my husband and go for a walk for a while, or to ask a friend so that I could take our daughter for some alone time.

Garcias

I added in a link to the right for the Garcias, whose son broke his leg on October 9th.

Interior Monologue

I added a link to Interior Monologue’s blog; their son broke his leg.

Mosholders

I added a link to the right for the Mosholders blog; their son broke his leg September 30th.

Houston broken bones

First of all, Corine sorry for taking so long to respond.  I live in Houston and while we still have no electricity, etc. at our house I do finally have a generator that has allowed me to get back online.  I’m so glad to hear the blog has been some help; that’s nice to hear it’s doing what I intended.

I saw an article just a moment ago on the Houston Chronicle about effects of Ike: 

CHILD INJURIES INCREASE

They survived Hurricane Ike’s powerful winds and torrents of rain, but now dozens of Houston-area children are landing in emergency rooms with broken bones, skull fractures and other preventable injuries.

Doctors are warning parents preoccupied with fixing their homes and obtaining food to pay closer attention to their children.

Since Ike, emergency room visits at Texas Children’s Hospital have increased by as much as 30 percent, said Dr. Paul Sirbaugh, an attending physician.

Sirbaugh said children are climbing trees and falling, getting hit by cars and breaking bones.

“My big fear,” he said, “is that this is something perhaps overlooked in the community. I want to remind parents that their houses and electricity are very, very important, but they need to do their best to keep an eye on their 4-year-olds and their older children.”

Sirbaugh encouraged schools to reopen as soon as possible.

“I would put a call out. We need to get these kids back in school,” he said. “Parents are so distracted at home.”

Memorial Hermann Children’s Hospital also reported an increase in child injuries similar to that seen during the summer holidays.