Andrew's ER Adventure

On Tuesday afternoon, Andrew visited the Cobb Pediatric ER for the second time in his 17 month life. I knew they had him in the computer when I signed in Andrew Swayne and they gave him a wristband that said Andrew Joseph Swayne.

Anywho, here's the story. We met our playgroup at the park in the morning. The big kids were all having a great time playing on the little playground designed for ages 2 - 5. Andrew wanted to join the fun so I followed him around while he climbed and went down one of the little slides. He found another slide and was getting ready to go down but it was much steeper so I sat down to go with him. While trying to scoot my bottom down a slide only wide enough for a four year old's bottom, not a 36 year old, Andrew's leg got stuck between the edge of the slide and my leg and his leg bent back at a very funny angle. He started crying and I had a hard time calming him down. I didn't notice any bruising or swelling and he finally calmed down some. He was still crying a little and I chalked it up to being tired since he recently dropped his morning nap. You can just look at him the wrong way around 11:00 a.m. and he'll cry. So we packed up and headed home. He fell asleep in the car and slept in his bed at home for another 30 minutes. When I went to get him up, I noticed he wouldn't put any weight on his left leg while standing in the crib. Then I put him on the floor to crawl, he wouldn't crawl. He just laid his head down on the floor. He wasn't crying but the mommy alarms are going off so I decided he should go to the ER for an x-ray. After a phone call to Joe for advice, we decided I should take him to Cobb Pediatric vs. driving further into the city to the children's hospital. Load up George (who should be napping right now) and off we go.

Two hours after we signed in, we got back to see the triage nurse. Apparently the ER was packed when we got there. Andrew was fairly calm while we waited as long as I left him in the stroller. If I tried to hold him, he wailed. He would have nothing to do with the nurse trying to take his vitals. He screamed like I've never seen him scream. She made sure the doctor came right in to see him when we did get to the exam room. They gave him some tylenol with codeine to send him to happy land and did an x-ray. In the meantime, Ann drove over to get George from the hospital and Heather, our carpool buddy, picked up Zack at school and took him home to play at their house. Thank you both for your help!!!

The prognosis: no visible fracture but the doc. said Andy could still have a fracture that didn't show up on the x-ray. Since Andy still wouldn't put any weight on his leg, they put a splint on his leg (see pictures) and said to go see the orthopaedic doctor in about 4 days for another x-ray. If there is a fracture, it will show up on a later x-ray because the bone will start to repair itself and it will be visible on the x-ray. We went home with a prescription for tylenol with codeine and a baby with a giant leg. He slept really well last night and is doing fine today just taking ibuprofen. He goes to the ortho. at 9:30 on Monday, the same office where Zack went with his broken arm when he was two years old.

Zack was making funny faces so at least Andy is smiling. He has to wear pants so he won't pick at the ace bandages on top of the splint. Fun in the 90+ degree heat.
Giant baby leg

Andy is frustrated today because he can't really crawl and he's not a sit in one place and play kind of guy. He wants to climb up on his ride-on Spiderman car. I put it in the garage so he wouldn't have to see it all day and cry. He had actually taken a few tiny steps over the weekend so a minor setback in the walking department. The doctor said we can take the splint off if he seems comfortable putting weight on his leg. We can put it back on if need be.

Did I mention I backed over the stroller in the parking lot when we were leaving the playground? I loaded the kids up first and forgot it was back there. Ooops. The trailer hitch light thingy got knocked off so Joe fixed that up last night. The Jeep stroller is okay, that thing rocks. Score one for the stroller.

Thanks again to all our friends who helped out yesterday and called/stopped by to check on us. We really appreciate it.