Our toddler has a broken leg!

15 February 2012

On Wednesday evening CG and daddy were playing soccer in the garden after dinner. CG went to kick the ball and, as has happened many times in the past, he missed and fell over the ball. This time though he seemed to fall at a funny angle and when he landed on his hands and knees Super dad heard (he's got super hearing after all) a horrible popping sound. Fortunately my wonderful husband has his head screwed on right and I immediately picked him up. When he recalls what happened he says 'CG didn't cry straight away he just sort of froze and that told me something was seriously wrong'.

Super dad had the presence of kind to know something was not right and so we all got into the car and headed for the nearest emergency room. When I think about it I'm so glad he took charge because I'm I would have doubted myself and probably would have suggested we wait a little bit to see if there was any swelling and if the pain persisted then we would have gone.

Our poor baby cried and cried but not a normal cry, it was a sort of mewling cry, very sad and heart wrenching. That day I learnt what all the first aid books are talking about when they say a child who is really hurt or sick has a 'pitiful' cry not a full bodied cry.

Of course the emergency room was a trial. I had to park the car while daddy and CG went in through the front door, I had to fill out stupid hospital forms and accident reports while listening to my little sausage crying in the next room, we waited ages for the doctor to see us only to be sent immediately to have x-rays and of course was not allowed in because I'm pregnant. So sat outside and listened to my son cry, which was horrible. At least he had daddy with him.

When the x-rays arrived we went back to the emergency room with the sealed envelope. The doctor took a look at them and the look on his face was not one you want to ever see on a doctor's face, it was the look of shock and horror. He came over and announced that CG had a very serious break, a transverse spiral break to his right femur. 'What...... all he did was fall over kicking a ball, this can't be happening.'

The doctor starts saying something about how we'll need a specialist and all I can hear is Transverse spiral break to the femur. The femur? You mean the biggest leg bone, the hardest bone to break?

So the next few minutes were a flurry of calling doctor friends trying to get a referral to a good pediatric orthopedic surgeon (one serious mouthful). unfortunately we could not find anyone who could think of someone. So the hospital sent us to see their arthropod who only operates on children from Garden City clinic. So we had to carry our poor sausage back to the car, put him back in his car seat and drive to the next hospital.

Same routine when we arrive, more forms, more waiting. But this time he was able to lie down. He was given something for the pain at Milpark along with some type of sedative, so between the pain and the medication he was pretty out of it. We sat and waited and waited for the orthopod to come and see us. All the while the nurses were saying things like 'we've called him but he hasn't come, maybe he's gone home for the night. He'll only come in the morning. We'll just have to do the traction.' things like this really don't fill you with a warm fuzzy feeling about the doctor who's going to treat your child. We had been waiting ages and I was really feeling freaked out and uncomfortable there.

Then one of our doctor friends called and told us that we needed to see Dr Greg Firth and that we should definitely go to Sandton Mediclinic, 'they're set up for kids', he said. As is God's way his timing was perfect. We had just made the extremely tough decision to leave the hospital when the doctor from Garden City clinic arrived. I'm so glad that super dad was around because there is no way I would have had the guts to tell the specialist that we were going to another doctor and that we were moving our poor little in-pain-broken-legged child. The doctor looked completely taken aback and confused. He stuttered and spluttered and when super dad asked for him to say what he was thinking he struggled to article himself. Basically he did not instill us with much confidence in his skills. Just another confirmation that we'd made the right decision. Another confirmation for me that God was guiding our decision was that I told CG that we were going to have to move him again and that it would be but that we would be with him the whole time. For the first time that evening he looked me right in the eye and nodded. He was so out of it between the pain and the valeron that he had not really made eye contact or responded to us all evening.

So we signed the scary, you-have-refused-medical-care form, picked up our little one as he cried and checked out of Garden City. The ride to Sandton Mediclinic was filled with discussion on the shortest versus least bumpy route, self doubt and moaning cries from our baby. When we finally arrived Dr Greg Firth was there to meet us in the emergency room and to our surprise we had actually meet him at a braai at the Blackburn's house in December. Wow God certainly has a way of tying up loose ends.

He looked at the x-rays and was the first doctor to explain things in a way that made us completely confident in his skills. He told used had three options:
1. Put the leg in traction for 3 weeks until it healed. (what they do in Bara and what heals the bone the fastest but not really viable in a private hospital because it's too expensive and not a great choice for a toddler).
2. Put CG straight into a hip spica cast. (not the best choice because the bone may be difficult to position as the break was fresh but it would mean we could take him home).
3. Put the leg in traction for about a week until the bone 'gets sticky' and them put on the hip spica cast.

In the end we all agreed that option 3 was the best and so we were admitted to the hospital. Greg (as he insisted we call him - a really great man and doctor) did say that we should just try to make it to the next Tuesday but that if CG got too upset we could just go ahead and put on the cast as soon as we needed.

So after a very long emotional night we were admitted to the very lovely Santon Mediclinic paedeatric ward where we were given a private ward, which had a pull out sleeper couch for me so I could stay the night. Greg took charge and got the nurses hustling to give CG pain meds and get him into traction. My mom arrived with some items we had asked her to pick up from home and CG and I settled in for the night. Super dad had to leave then as only one parent is allowed to stay.  I was very concerned about how we would make it through the night on our own but at least CG had been treated now so things were looking up. I felt a great sense of peace as everyone left knowing we had made the right, albeit difficult, decision for our child.

And so began one of the longest night and then weeks of my life......

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