OT: Baby's Leg Broken!

[haygood at myway.com (Brian Haygood)]

What a day.  I can't even find an adjective to put in that last sentence.  



This morning my wife noticed that our 8-week-old son's left upper thigh was swollen pretty remarkably.  We have noticed in the past couple of days that he cries loudly when we change his diapers - moving his legs around, and wondered if he had a problem with his hip.  We called 5 doctors we know or Julie works with, and the ones we got in touch with said that since he is comfortable and actually pretty happy and active, we should take him to a pediatric orthopoedist on Monday morning.  When my Dad got the message, he said he would come look at Travis.  



Dad noticed that the swelling was more in the middle of the thigh than the hip.  We found no bite marks or redness, so we decided to get an X-Ray.  The X-ray was truly unbelieveable.  It took my breath away.  The left femur (thigh bone) is broken clean in two right in the middle.  There was a gap between the halves that you could stick your finger through.  We have no idea why Travis wasn't complaining about such a horrible looking injury.  



We called in an orthopod and got a cast on him.  We took some more X-rays and an MRI to check for tissue damage and look for bone abnormalities.  No MRI results yet.  X-rays look good to the doctor; he got the bone lined up reasonably well.  Apparently for a baby this will be more than good enough since they heal so well.  Still scary looking to me.  I had to climb into the MRI tube with Travis to support his head and hold his hand.  I talked to him for a while and he fussed slightly when the horrendous noises started then fell asleep - he was by now about 4 hours behind on naptimes.  



The cast is huge.  I'm sure it weighs more than he does.  You can see the tips of his toes on each foot, and it goes all the way up to the middle of his chest.  His legs are flexed up and out a bit and there is a brace between his knees.  He will probably have to get a new cast in 3 or 4 weeks because he is growing so rapidly, and the casts will be on for a total of 4 or 5 weeks.  The cast has a large cutout for his privates, which we are told (and believe) will be impossible to keep clean.  We can't get the cast wet.



We have no idea how this happened.  The break is clean, not splintered or comminuted (smashed into bits).  The X-ray looks to me like it shows a somewhat torsional fracture, but the Dr. said only somewhat torsional.  There are no bruises or cuts anywhere on him.  He has been in our care or my parents' care for the past several days.  We are hoping that there isn't some bone defect that has weakened his bones, but we are told we would have seen more trouble than this by now if that were the case.  



The only thing we can come up with relates to our almost 3 year old son Thai.  Thai is very excited about Baby Travis and likes showing off for him and "holding" him.  By that I mean that we let him put his arms around him while we do the real holding.  Thai also likes to give everyone hugs and kisses when he goes to sleep.  Thai doesn't seem to realize that he is putting a lot of weight on the baby when he leans on/over him to kiss him at times.  Now I don't know how much force it takes to break a little femur, but the only thing I can figure is that Thai must have climbed on Travis' leg to give him a kiss when Travis was in his bouncer.  We keep the two pretty closely watched, but this is the only scenario that even half way makes sense.  No one knows of any big event where Travis cried out when Thai was around him, and they aren't even on the same level often at all, especially not without us around.  Travis has been so comfortable and quiet throughout the whole process 
that maybe we wouldn't have noticed anything.  Whatever happened we are all confused, shocked and saddened by the whole thing.



What a sad thing for a little guy to have to go through.  The next 3/4 of his life (6 weeks) will be pretty uncomfortable, but it looks like he'll be fine after that.  We are home now and he is trying to sleep.  He is not sleeping too soundly.  It is hard to burp him and he has been having trouble in that area already.  He doesn't fit in his car seat because his legs are spread apart in the cast.  We tried at the hospital to support him in it somehow, but we all agreed it couldn't really be done, so Julie held him in the back of the van.  I never drove so slowly.  I have a spare car seat I will have to cut the sides off of for his legs to clear it, but it should work quite well then.  I'm also thinking of making a fiberglass "splash" of his whole body to make sort of a seat he will fit in around the house.  Diaper changes are a two man ordeal.  My wife can't really even pick him up because he is so heavy and cumbersome.  



I'm thankful that he is healthy overall.  There really are many worse things that could happen to any of us.  I'd still appreciate any extra prayers anyone could include us in.  Julie's work has been exhausting because her partner is in the middle of a two week vacation.  I'm in the final running for a two week contract to finish the design of some helicopter parts, and if I get that I will be swamped with work as well.  We have a good network and helpful family, so we'll make it.  



Thanks for letting me rant/vent, etc.  What a day.





Brian 

Tyler, TX



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