When she first fractured the leg, all they told us was "She'll be in the cast 4-6 weeks." Ok, not such a big deal. The accident happened on November 30th, so we were thinking best case scenario we would be out of the cast on December 28th and just in time for her 3rd birthday, or worse case we would be getting out of the cast January 11th. Both seemed fine for us and totally do-able. Well, things can just never be that simple.
We took her back to the Dr a few times in December (see previous post about cast) and they decided to wait until January 7th to take the cast off. 6 weeks. Still not bad. But then the cast came off. And wasn't healed. Well, the Dr wasn't surprised that it wasn't healed yet, but Ryan and I both were. Because nobody told us that it might not be healed. So they sent us home with a walking boot and orders to come back in 4 more weeks. Total cast time-10 weeks.
So now we thought-Great! She'll have to the boot for 4 weeks and be done! We thought we'd be done sometime around the beginning of February and Leah would get to experience some of the fun winter brings-at least for a month or so. No such luck.
At the Dr appointment on February 8 they said that her leg was looking better-the fracture was still there but not even close to as bad as it had been. Good news! Bad news? They were now concerned with how much smaller her left calf muscle was than her right one. So the Dr's new orders are as follows:
She's not allowed to wear the boot at home.
This is because he wanted her to walk without it to strengthen the muscle.
She HAS to wear the boot for another 2 weeks to school.
This one was because her teachers wouldn't be able to give her enough 1-1 attention without the boot and he felt that if she was too rambunctious (who? Leah? Never!) that muscle wouldn't be strong enough to protect the bone.
She's not allowed to play outside at school for at LEAST 4 more weeks, or until she stops limping. Whichever is LONGER.
This is because of the obvious. Snow is slippery. She could fall and again the muscle wouldn't be strong enough to support the bone.
So 4 more weeks at least. At this point she's still limping a bit, but not too bad. So who knows, maybe we will be done in 2 more weeks. Maybe it'll be longer. Total time for the injury-14 weeks.
It's so frustrating to not have any idea what's actually going on with your child's injury. Why didn't anybody say in the beginning "Well, she'll be in the cast 4-6 weeks but just a heads up it might not be all the way healed so they may give her another cast or they might to a walking boot for a few more weeks. And then the muscle could be smaller so there may be more boot time"? Because there is a huge difference between 4 and 14 weeks. I feel so out of the loop with my own child and now I don't even know what to tell her. "Mommy will I get my boot off today?" Who knows Leah, who knows.
Again, Leah has been nothing but a little trooper. She wants to do things herself and rarely does she complain about any pain or having to wear that darn boot around. She doesn't even complain about not being able to play outside. That's nothing new to her at this point. She is showing such persistence at times to do things on her own, and a great deal of patience-something she obviously doesn't get from me-to not rush her healing or to do things she just can't do yet. She really is an amazing little girl and I wish that I could deal with all the set backs as easily as she has. There's no frustration from her at all, just a smile and little limp.
Looking back to November 30th, neither Ryan nor I would've ever guessed that we would still be dealing with this issue in February, much less in March. Never trust those Dr's when they say "4-6 weeks". They mean 14. At Least.
Amy
