As some of you know, Kaitlyn injured her right leg on Thanksgiving. She was playing, and we aren't sure if she twisted it or landed on it wrong, but we do know that she hurt it. We didn't actually know something was wrong at first. We thought she was just tired, fussy, and wanted to be held constantly. It wasn't until I tried to put her down and have her walk, that I realized she wasn't able to bear any weight. We took her home that night and gave her Ibuprofen, then took her in the next day for some x-rays. She is usually very stoic and doesn't complain when she hurts... unless she is in a lot of pain. This is how we knew something was really wrong. Even at the doctor's office, he had a hard time pin-pointing exactly where she was injured because she wouldn't show any sign of being in pain. She's pretty shy, and wouldn't even look at the doctor, but I could tell by the way she would glare when he was putting pressure on her leg, that it was hurting her.
The x-rays looked normal- which is not unusual. With hairline fractures, and where the fracture isn't complete, many times it's not until the bone starts healing that you can see (on repeat x-rays) where the injury actually occurred. We thought we had it narrowed down to somewhere between the knee and the ankle. Dr Kilty's advice was to take her home and let her do activity as tolerated. So we did. We didn't push her, but tried to see what she could handle. She kept off of it completely for about 3 days. We were told to bring her in if she wasn't starting to get better in that amount of time. The injury happened on Thursday, and by Monday she still could not put any weight or pressure on her leg. I took her back in. Dr Kilty said that kids tend to limit use on their own, and that he wouldn't cast it unless it showed a complete fracture, or something that wouldn't heal together on its own. So we would have to play the waiting game. We went back home with no real answers.
She still refused to walk, but started to crawl a few days later. She would still cry if it got bumped or pulled on. After almost two weeks post injury, she started trying to walk on it, but with a limp. She even got out the push toy that she used when she first started walking, and used it as a walker (pretty smart, we thought!). She seemed to keep re-injuring it while playing around- once on her own, and a couple of times with her older brothers' help. To be honest, we were a little frustrated. We thought some type of immobilization device would help protect it.
We decided that, since they weren't really going to do anything but watch it heal, we wouldn't take her in for a while and see how she did. We took her back in after a month (which was about 2 weeks ago now), because she needed to get her flu booster shot. She had twisted her knee about a week before, and now it looked like her right foot was rotated out when she walked. Fabulous! Dr Kilty decided to get more x-rays. He was unsure, but it looked like there may be a small injury to her knee. He referred us to a pediatric orthopedic specialist, and this is where we are.
We can't get in until the 24th of January. She is walking better, but still limps at times. She still can't really run, and still complains if you grab her around her lower leg. So I guess we'll see.
She doesn't complain much, but tells us from time to time, "I got a ou-weeee!", and points to her leg. She's such a little trooper!!
