A Rough Slide

 Two weeks ago, Hunter got his first boo-boo.  Like, 'real' boo-boo.  We didn't know at the time the degree of boo-boo, but imaginations can sure run wild when looking at a screaming baby who cannot verbalize his pain.  It was my first experience staring at a teary/screaming/in pain Hunter and having absolutely no idea how to help him, or really, what to do next.  His leg got caught while going down a slide (more on that below) and it twisted his hip, knee, and ankle in positions no person should ever be in!

We headed straight to the doctor with two unsure parents, and two grandparents who had just pulled in to town to celebrate the upcoming birth of their granddaughter!  Let's just say this was just a little distraction before we got to think about supporting the mama who was laboring at home like a rock star while we talked about slides and sad things at the doctor.

Here is the little trooper at the doctor's office...  He's all drugged up (well just Tylenol, but it sure did the trick!) and was in fairly good spirits while the doctor poked and prodded, and tried to come up with a "good" answer for first time parents who probably wouldn't be satisfied with a "well, let's just wait and see" kind of diagnosis.

The doc said it could be strained, sprained, or broken.  All of these options would cause pain, discomfort, and really, just an unhappy baby.  

But he doesn't look too bad, does he?

Do you notice how we all match?
Hopefully I don't find this happening too much in our future

So, we headed home with orders to get an X-Ray the following day if we wanted.  We wanted.

X-Rays looked fine (although it was a horrendous procedure with lots of tears, and not extremely nice x-ray techs) and we decided to just wait it out and see if he would walk again on his own....

He went days without walking, and would only crawl or stand.  Scary for us, as the doc told us that he should be better in 4 days!  But we were relieved that he could put weight on it at all!

However, a week in,.. we still weren't encouraged by his progress, and we took him to a family-trusted chiropractor and he adjusted two areas of his ankle, and one area in his hip.  The chiropractor could tell that something was amiss, and with the adjustments, Hunts should have a better chance of healing quicker and more fully.

We ended that day at the Urgent Care Clinic, after he tried to turn while standing on his left leg.  It was another long, sad episode of crying with pained tears.  I don't think he was the only one in the room crying...  The Urgent Care doc gave us another order for an X-Ray if we wanted, and gave us one too many 'cliche' statements about "kids fall all the time" or, "well, he probably is just still learning how to walk"....which made us quite excited to get out of there and get little Hunts to bed.  We didn't do the X-Ray, but we did decide that we'd like to avoid urgent care forever if we could help it.

Hunter had another painful fall/crumple the following day, which gave us more to worry about.  Something just didn't seem "right" and it was making me anxious that he was using it too much with a potential bigger injury that he couldn't tell us about!  We saw Hunter's pediatrician who ordered another X-Ray of just the hip, which wasn't addressed much on the first X-Ray.  The hip X-ray looked great as well!

So... the story really is...  just wait it out!!  I decided to take 3 days and do my best to keep him off of his leg at all times.  We took lots of walks in the stroller, read lots of books sitting on the couch, and even went to the zoo and stayed weight-bearing free the entire time!  I hoped and prayed that this might be just the ticket to give his leg the rest and time it needed to heal.

I woke up this morning, excited to begin our experiment with walking once again!  I pulled out his trusty ol' walker and he sure showed me what he could do!  All of a sudden, he was moving more than I have seen him move in two weeks, and without pain!  (or so it seems) Throughout the day he probably even walked 20 steps by himself, sans walker.  Wow.

I don't know how Hunter's slide story will end, I am hopeful and prayerful that things will only progress forwards!  I am SO thankful that nothing was broken.  I am SO thankful that Hunter has kept a great attitude throughout the past two weeks.  And I am SO in awe that God would give us a little child to take care of and make decisions about their health and well-being, since sometimes I seem at a loss for what to do!  Good thing we at least have Someone to go to when we have no idea what to do!

Here's Hunter doing his rehab on the walker.  Go Hunts!

So since this accident, I've learned a bit about sliding!  Check out This Surprising Article about kids riding on slides on parent's laps...  I always thought you were doing your child a favor by having them sit on your lap!  ...apparently this is not true, so spread the word!  I'm hoping Hunter will be sliding away (solo of course) here soon, and showing this injury who's boss as he runs around on the playground with his big goofy smile & combover hairdo.  I just love that boy!