Well, it's been quite interesting here in the last week and a half. On a somewhat trivial note, they've been putting a new roof on our townhouse, so there's been a lot of pounding and house-shaking going on the past few weeks, as well as yelling construction workers and loud music, resulting in a lot of headaches for the Mama. And then there's the man-child, our dear, sweet baby boy.
I told my husband that I think our son decided it was high time we learned what parents really go through. Initially, I'd say we've been pretty spoiled: we had a healthy baby who always ate well, slept well, almost never got sick, was relatively happy almost all of the time, is exceedingly verbal, etc., etc., etc.. Well, now he's realized he's almost two, and it's high time he started acting like it! This is mostly rearing its ugly head in the form of him being a very independent thinker and terribly stubborn about trying to get his way-- refusing to eat (especially veggies, which he previously LOVED), throwing cups if he doesn't want what's in them, telling me "NO!" several times a day, and I swear he has learned how to make himself cry. If that weren't exhausting enough, he got to have his first trip to the ER last week! Now please don't misunderstand-- I'm NOT saying he planned a trip to the hospital! I'm not that crazy!
Here's what happened: on the evening of Tuesday, the 20th, he was playing in our living room while Daddy-O and I sat on the couch chatting about our day. Kiddo was walking kind of quickly, not watching where he was going. Next thing you know, he slips on a LIBRARY BOOK, of ALL things, and totally wipes out on to his left side. Now normally when he falls down, he gets up and prompts us, "Are you okay?" We then ask him, "Are you okay?" and he replies, "yeah." He even gets a kick out of it if I say "WIPEOUT!" when he falls! We tell him we're glad he's alright, and he goes back to whatever he was doing. Not this time, however. He just laid there and cried and cried and cried. Daddy-O rushed over to him and picked him up, set him on the couch with us, and we fussed over him. Kiddo continued to wail. We cuddled him, tried to comfort him, examined him for breaks, bumps, bruises, but don't see anything. He didn't seem to be able to calm down enough to tell us what was wrong, although I do believe he whimpered, "It hurts!"
After a few minutes, we tried to get him to stand up, but he either wouldn't or couldn't. I offered him some Tylenol, which he accepted heartily, let him play with my phone, even got him his binky (normally reserved for bedtime and naps), and to cheer him up, we asked him if he wanted to go to the Library. Of course he did, so we encouraged him to walk with us to the door. Again he refused. So we take him to the car and drive to the Library with our sad little guy. When we got there, I asked him if he wanted to go in with Mommy into the Library. That brought a smile and a "YEAH!" He dropped his binky and I helped him out of the car. When I tried to get him to stand up and walk in, he stood for a few seconds shaking like mad, and then his left ankle gave way, and he sat down in tears. Even inside the Library, he felt he couldn't get down and walk. So by then we KNEW something was wrong.
The hospital is conveniently located quite near to the Library, so we drove over and took him to the ER, where he clung to us and continued to cry. Even though he is normally a chatterbox, he seemed totally unable to explain where he was hurting. Honestly, if you asked him if his fingernails hurt, he would have said yes. He couldn't stand for the doctors either, so they ordered some x-rays, which looked fine, diagnosed it as a sprained left ankle, prescribed us some Ibuprofen for pain, and told us to let him rest a few days. He seemed to be getting happier so we ran to Wal-Mart to get the meds before the pharmacy closed, and got him his favorite Burger King to eat on the way home.
The next day he woke up crying at 5 a.m. (he normally wakes up between 7:30 and 8:30) so we gave him more meds and let him get in our bed with us, another thing we never like to do (it's amazing how much room such a tiny person can take up). The rest of the day, he basically wanted to stay in our bed and watch videos, sleep, or listen to music. He made NO attempts to get down and winced and cried every time we changed his diaper. On Thursday he would sit up by himself, but still wouldn't put any weight on that left leg. He didn't even enjoy his bath. He just sat there and cried. It was too sad. We finally decided that perhaps he'd hurt his hip, not his ankle which never bruised nor swelled.
Friday morning, we called his pediatrician as soon as the office should have opened. Much to our dismay, both she and her partner were on vacation so the answering service said they would page her. When she called back, she was rude to Daddy-O and told him he should have called the day before, there wasn't anything she could do about it. We'd just have to go to Express Care, a drop-in clinic. So we did. The pediatrician there, Dr. Foster, was as sweet as could be and agreed that the problem definitely seemed to be his hip. Since the ER docs hadn't ordered any x-rays of his hips or upper legs, she said the poor guy would have to have more x-rays, and also a blood test to rule out an infection. It turns out that infections in infant/toddler hips are quite a bit more common than I ever knew. Then she called the Pediatric Ortho clinic to see if the Dr. there could see Kiddo before they closed for the holiday. But in case they needed more tests, he couldn't eat anything yet!
By then it was 12:30 (he'd eaten breakfast around 6:30), and we briefly stopped at home to get our sweetie some books, then went right to the hospital again. We actually had no idea where in the complex this clinic was and got pretty lost before we found it. Eventually, we got to meet the doc and his resident-- kiddo had fallen asleep on the exam table!-- who were also as kind and gentle as possible. Dr. Gabriel said he was glad we had come, because from what he had heard on the phone, he had been very worried about Kiddo. Once he saw the x-rays, read the results of the blood test, and examined him, he wasn't worried anymore. He said that Kiddo actually probably had a contusion on his tailbone or hip, and must have just fallen really hard. So we should just let him rest and recuperate on his own terms. At about 3 p.m., we returned home, finally fed the poor kid and put him down for a nap.
My mom came for the holiday weekend, and that perked him up a bit, so he's resumed crawling, and will even walk on his knees, but he still refuses to stand up, pull himself up, or walk. We're not sure if he's afraid to get hurt again, is just being stubborn so he can be carried everywhere, or if it still hurts. We're leaning towards options 1 or 2, partially because he was so stubborn about walking independently for so many months that he wouldn't until he was 18 months. Daddy-O asked him if he needed to go back to Lesotho before he would walk again, and of course he replied, "yes!" Anybody have $5,000 or so just lying around?!?!?!
So that's our very long story of the poor little invalid. Please pray for us that he starts walking again ASAP!!! We hope you and your kidlets are faring better than our little guy!
I told my husband that I think our son decided it was high time we learned what parents really go through. Initially, I'd say we've been pretty spoiled: we had a healthy baby who always ate well, slept well, almost never got sick, was relatively happy almost all of the time, is exceedingly verbal, etc., etc., etc.. Well, now he's realized he's almost two, and it's high time he started acting like it! This is mostly rearing its ugly head in the form of him being a very independent thinker and terribly stubborn about trying to get his way-- refusing to eat (especially veggies, which he previously LOVED), throwing cups if he doesn't want what's in them, telling me "NO!" several times a day, and I swear he has learned how to make himself cry. If that weren't exhausting enough, he got to have his first trip to the ER last week! Now please don't misunderstand-- I'm NOT saying he planned a trip to the hospital! I'm not that crazy!
Here's what happened: on the evening of Tuesday, the 20th, he was playing in our living room while Daddy-O and I sat on the couch chatting about our day. Kiddo was walking kind of quickly, not watching where he was going. Next thing you know, he slips on a LIBRARY BOOK, of ALL things, and totally wipes out on to his left side. Now normally when he falls down, he gets up and prompts us, "Are you okay?" We then ask him, "Are you okay?" and he replies, "yeah." He even gets a kick out of it if I say "WIPEOUT!" when he falls! We tell him we're glad he's alright, and he goes back to whatever he was doing. Not this time, however. He just laid there and cried and cried and cried. Daddy-O rushed over to him and picked him up, set him on the couch with us, and we fussed over him. Kiddo continued to wail. We cuddled him, tried to comfort him, examined him for breaks, bumps, bruises, but don't see anything. He didn't seem to be able to calm down enough to tell us what was wrong, although I do believe he whimpered, "It hurts!"
After a few minutes, we tried to get him to stand up, but he either wouldn't or couldn't. I offered him some Tylenol, which he accepted heartily, let him play with my phone, even got him his binky (normally reserved for bedtime and naps), and to cheer him up, we asked him if he wanted to go to the Library. Of course he did, so we encouraged him to walk with us to the door. Again he refused. So we take him to the car and drive to the Library with our sad little guy. When we got there, I asked him if he wanted to go in with Mommy into the Library. That brought a smile and a "YEAH!" He dropped his binky and I helped him out of the car. When I tried to get him to stand up and walk in, he stood for a few seconds shaking like mad, and then his left ankle gave way, and he sat down in tears. Even inside the Library, he felt he couldn't get down and walk. So by then we KNEW something was wrong.
The hospital is conveniently located quite near to the Library, so we drove over and took him to the ER, where he clung to us and continued to cry. Even though he is normally a chatterbox, he seemed totally unable to explain where he was hurting. Honestly, if you asked him if his fingernails hurt, he would have said yes. He couldn't stand for the doctors either, so they ordered some x-rays, which looked fine, diagnosed it as a sprained left ankle, prescribed us some Ibuprofen for pain, and told us to let him rest a few days. He seemed to be getting happier so we ran to Wal-Mart to get the meds before the pharmacy closed, and got him his favorite Burger King to eat on the way home.
The next day he woke up crying at 5 a.m. (he normally wakes up between 7:30 and 8:30) so we gave him more meds and let him get in our bed with us, another thing we never like to do (it's amazing how much room such a tiny person can take up). The rest of the day, he basically wanted to stay in our bed and watch videos, sleep, or listen to music. He made NO attempts to get down and winced and cried every time we changed his diaper. On Thursday he would sit up by himself, but still wouldn't put any weight on that left leg. He didn't even enjoy his bath. He just sat there and cried. It was too sad. We finally decided that perhaps he'd hurt his hip, not his ankle which never bruised nor swelled.
Friday morning, we called his pediatrician as soon as the office should have opened. Much to our dismay, both she and her partner were on vacation so the answering service said they would page her. When she called back, she was rude to Daddy-O and told him he should have called the day before, there wasn't anything she could do about it. We'd just have to go to Express Care, a drop-in clinic. So we did. The pediatrician there, Dr. Foster, was as sweet as could be and agreed that the problem definitely seemed to be his hip. Since the ER docs hadn't ordered any x-rays of his hips or upper legs, she said the poor guy would have to have more x-rays, and also a blood test to rule out an infection. It turns out that infections in infant/toddler hips are quite a bit more common than I ever knew. Then she called the Pediatric Ortho clinic to see if the Dr. there could see Kiddo before they closed for the holiday. But in case they needed more tests, he couldn't eat anything yet!
By then it was 12:30 (he'd eaten breakfast around 6:30), and we briefly stopped at home to get our sweetie some books, then went right to the hospital again. We actually had no idea where in the complex this clinic was and got pretty lost before we found it. Eventually, we got to meet the doc and his resident-- kiddo had fallen asleep on the exam table!-- who were also as kind and gentle as possible. Dr. Gabriel said he was glad we had come, because from what he had heard on the phone, he had been very worried about Kiddo. Once he saw the x-rays, read the results of the blood test, and examined him, he wasn't worried anymore. He said that Kiddo actually probably had a contusion on his tailbone or hip, and must have just fallen really hard. So we should just let him rest and recuperate on his own terms. At about 3 p.m., we returned home, finally fed the poor kid and put him down for a nap.
My mom came for the holiday weekend, and that perked him up a bit, so he's resumed crawling, and will even walk on his knees, but he still refuses to stand up, pull himself up, or walk. We're not sure if he's afraid to get hurt again, is just being stubborn so he can be carried everywhere, or if it still hurts. We're leaning towards options 1 or 2, partially because he was so stubborn about walking independently for so many months that he wouldn't until he was 18 months. Daddy-O asked him if he needed to go back to Lesotho before he would walk again, and of course he replied, "yes!" Anybody have $5,000 or so just lying around?!?!?!
So that's our very long story of the poor little invalid. Please pray for us that he starts walking again ASAP!!! We hope you and your kidlets are faring better than our little guy!
4 comments:
so sad!! how is he doing now?
so sad! how is he doing now?
sorry about the double comment.
Poor little guy:( I have hurt my tailbone pretty badly before- it was horrible! I hope he gets his regular toddler mobility and energy back soon. That sounds like quite the mystery you guys had to solve, and quite the process you had to go through to figure it out!!
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