Weekend Warrior

Kyler is a trooper. All I can say is that we probably take the cake for being the worst parents ever. Many of you already know that Kyler has a broken leg, and his parents are most likely the ones to blame.

On Wednesday night Kyler, Josh and I were all having some quality family time playing and laughing together before Josh had to leave for his basketball game. We were picking Kyler up by his feet and he was laughing and giggling so hard that he probably peed his pants (like he does so often). After Josh had left I had noticed that Kyler was particularly clingy so I started to explore the possibilities. I changed his diaper, got him into his pajamas, wrapped him in his blanket, and then I decided to feel in his mouth. Sure enough he was cutting a tooth. So then I got out some teething rings and dismissed it as that. He slept through Wednesday night as usual but woke up kind of cranky. I still packed him up and brought him to daycare with teething tablets in hand.

Then around 11:30 Thursday morning I got a phone call at work from Diane. She said that Kyler was really cranky and possibly running fever. Josh was able to leave work to rescue Kyler. When I got home from work we took his temperature and everything was normal, except for the fact that Kyler was still miserable. This was not like him what so ever. He is usually a happy-go-lucky sort of guy.

Josh and I decided to split Friday up - I went to work in the morning and Josh went to work in the afternoon. Friday evening I decided to give Kyler a bath, and that's when I noticed that something could be wrong with his leg. I stretched it out to wash it and he just screamed at the top of his lungs. Then I watched him the rest of the evening and he was favoring his leg by keeping it close to his body all bent up. He didn't move it at all and when we moved it for him he just let out an excruciating scream. Changing his diaper, putting on socks and pants were just a miserable exercise for him.

That's when I decided to call the doctor. We got up Saturday morning and called first thing. Luckily our doctor was the one on call for the practice. We took him in at 9:30 and she did an exam and concluded that we needed an x-ray. The whole time I just couldn't believe what was happening. Could his leg be broken? I am such a bad mother. I kept thinking these things over and over to myself.

Since it was Saturday we had to go over to another office to get an x-ray. Josh had to hold Kyler underneath the machine while he screamed and screamed. The x-ray results were immediate. We were able to see them on the computer and sure enough Kyler's tibia had a spiral fracture. I couldn't believe my eyes. My heart just sank as I looked at the picture in disbelief.

I asked the doctor there at the x-ray office, "What could have caused this?" He responded rather rudely, "I don't even want to go there." As if he were trying to say that we knew what we had done. I just wanted to scream back at him, "I don't beat my child - if that's what you are thinking!" This is stressful enough to go through and I will live with the guilt for the rest of my life. What had we done? We were the ones to blame because we were playing with him. I am guilty for playing with my child and not realizing the consequences.

We took him back to our doctor and she splinted it up for us. She said that she didn't feel comfortable casting it because she didn't have much experience casting a little guy. She then gave us a number for an orthopedic doctor whom we well be calling first thing Monday morning. We will keep you updated.