Myles's Adventure (long version)

The Saga of the Broken Leg

On Saturday night March 20th Myles fell at my parents house. He slipped on a blanket and went backward. My Mom noticed that his leg hurt after he fell and he had a goose egg on the back of his head. Morgan and I were coming home from our trip in St. George and walked in the door minutes after it happened. Myles was really upset so we held him and he seemed fine. When we tried to give him a bath he wouldn't stand up on his left leg. We went home and had a pretty sleepless night. Myles kept waking up crying and had a hard time sleeping.

The next morning he still wasn't okay so I made an appointment with the after hours pediatrician. I love our pediatrician and one of the benefits of going to a doctor with the Utah Valley Pediatric Clinics is that someone is almost always available. We dropped Dashiel and Chase off at the Johnsons down the street and took Myles to the Orem office. There we saw Dr. Bailey. It was so hard to tell what was really hurting on Myles's leg because he was uncomfortable with everything. Dr. Bailey sent us to Orem Hospital to get a full leg x-ray. The x-ray tech did a great job with Myles who was quite upset with the process of x-raying his foot up to his hip. Morgan stayed with Myles during the x-rays. We then waited to hear the results. They gave us some Oreos during the wait and Myles proceeded to smear oreo all over Morgan. Dr. Bailey called us and told us to come back to his office, the radiologist who looked at the x-rays saw a possible micro-fracture on the tibia. We took Myles back to the Dr's office and Dr. Bailey re-checked him and decided to go ahead and splint his leg. There was a tiny bit of swelling on the tibia. Myles was so glad to have his Dad there with him. We finished with the doctor and stopped by the church to picked up Chase. We took Morgan, Myles and Chase home for naps and I ran back to the church to play in primary. We kept Myles on Motrin but Sunday night was another bad night. Monday I called my doctor and made an appointment for Wednesday. Myles seemed to be okay during the day but Monday night was really hard again. Finally Tuesday night he slept through the night and we could tell he was starting to feel better.

On Wednesday, the 24th of March, our pediatrician Sue Ann checked Myles. Again it was hard to tell exactly where he was hurting because Myles would complain with everything. She moved his toes, rotated his hip and knee etc. Sue Ann looked at the x-ray and the radiologist report and we decided to keep Myles in the splint and do another x-ray on his tibia to look for new bone or healing bone. His leg was still a tiny bit puffy. With the splint on Myles would crawl around and even stand up a little. I took Myles to preschool and on drives to run errands so he would get out a little bit but we mostly stayed home. He was such a good sport.

Tuesday March 30th we went to Utah Valley Regional Medical Center for a second set of x-rays. Morgan met us there and it went pretty fast. I took Myles home and Sue Ann called me that evening to give us the report. The radiologist didn't see anything on the x-ray so she told us to take Myles out of the splint and see how he did. All day Wednesday Myles would continue with his crawling around but he wouldn't walk. I tried to help him walk to see if he was just scared but even with a prize he wouldn't put any weight on his leg. Morgan and I wondered if he was just nervous because he seemed fine. Sue Ann called me again that evening and I explained how he was doing. She was very concerned because normally a little kid will want to walk and play so she thought there was still something wrong. She told me she would personally talk with the radiologist on Thursday and call me back.

Thursday Sue Ann spoke with the radiologist and went over both sets of Myles's x-rays. The radiologist couldn't see anything and guessed that if something was wrong it was possibly a break on the growth plate. Sue Ann called me back and told me to put the splint back on Myles and we would schedule a third x-ray after a few days. Myles was resistant at first to put the splint back on but once it was he was just fine. I wish I would have been as okay as he was. I had been brave and calm through this whole thing until that phone call. I finally had to cry and sadly it was more for myself than Myles. I was tired of not knowing what was really happening and being uncertain that we were doing the right thing for Myles. I was emotionally tired. To top it all off that day I took Myles to the dentist to get his first cavity filled. Myles was getting a cavity in between his two front teeth. He wasn't happy about the dentist especially with everything else that had been going on but after a quick time out in the bathroom he was fabulous. Myles got cotton candy smelling gas, yummy. He was tired by the end and started crying but over all he did well. What a horrible day.

Myles adapted quickly to the splint and was getting around very well. His favorite game to play is dogs. He has to crawl so it was a natural thing to pretend to be a puppy. All three boys would be crawling around making noise. Dashiel and Myles would bark and Chase would jabber.

Monday April 5th I took Myles back to get his third x-ray and then we went over to the doctors office to get the results. The report from the radiologist said that he saw healing bone on the tibia. Sue Ann explained that with this type of break they aren't in pain unless there is pressure on the bone which explained why he was fine on the ground. She also said this break needed 4 weeks to heal with no weight on it. I had a choice to keep Myles in a splint for two more weeks or cast him. We talked it over and decided that a cast would be better if we needed Myles to keep his weight off the leg. He had more mobility with the splint and it was unwrapping as he crawled. Myles wasn't too happy about not keeping the splint but after I showed him how dirty it was and explained he was getting a new, clean, blue cast he was excited. Myles did a good job holding still while Sue Ann and the nurse cast his leg. It starts at his toes and goes up over his knee. They did a great job giving him a soft cuff at the top so he could keep crawling and covered his toes so they would get hurt as he dragged his leg around. Myles got a dum dum sucker and we played play station games while the cast was hardening. Myles will go back in on the 22nd to get his cast off and another x-ray.

Things have been a little crazy because of all of this and I am so grateful for the support from family and friends. I can't thank my neighbors enough for watching Dashiel and Chase for us during all of these appointments. I am also thankful for Myles, he is truly amazing. He has been so good with all of this and has kept his sweet disposition. Myles is so cute with all of the nurses, technicians and doctors. He says goodbye and thank you to them when we leave. Most of all I am grateful to Morgan, he was such a comfort to Myles when he was hurting. Myles and I were in the car on our way to the doctor and Myles asked where his Dad was. I told him Dad was at work and Myles said "I need my Dad here, he is my best friend". Myles couldn't have a better best friend. Morgan has helped me keep perspective and my sanity these past weeks.

I will make sure to update in two weeks and hopefully our adventure will be over. Wish us luck.