When Your Child Can't Tell You His Leg Is Badly Broken....

To say this past weekend was a rollercoaster of emotion doesn't really cover it, but it is the best I have. From the ups: reconnecting with family, a phenomenal birthday dinner for one of our loved ones and the incredible achievement by our daughter who received the next belt colour in juijitsu (I want so desperately to focus on that but...) to the downs: the reconnection of family was at a family funeral, I had to miss her belt achievement because of being at the funeral, silly things like ripped favourite coat and burnt Christmas gifts, to the big one that has almost destroyed me - William broke his leg and the part that hurts most - we had no idea!

I want to make my blog educational and I am afraid this will be more narrative than anything, but perhaps by my sharing our experience it can bring awareness.

After juijitsu grading class and the funeral, we reconnected to travel for therapy time out of town. This was William's second time in the robotic legs. Monday was amazing. He was sweating like anything but kept on wanting to go whenever we asked if he wanted to stop. It was amazing and the therapists were thrilled to see that he initiated his legs almost equally - with 18 and 19%.

Saturday was even better. The robotic leg system had been adjusted more for him and he was loving it. Turns out he was initiating even more this time over 20% with both legs. William went walking for over 20 minutes, completely engaged and enjoyed walking to Dad and walking with Mom and Big Sister.

After the session, William went right into his wheelchair and we headed home leaving on his AFOs (ankle foot orthotics) and chilling in the back of the wheelchair van with me.

On the 45 minute ride, William was alert, even more so than usual. He was watching me intensely and loved holding my hand. The only thing that was different was that while he had been sweating a lot during the session on Monday, this time he did not sweat during the session but on the drive home he was dripping with sweat. But this too happens occassionally as he has autonomic dysregulation (he has trouble keeping his temperature constant). We got home, got him into his bed and everything seemed hunky dorry, until I went to change his diaper.

The moment that I lifted his leg up by the knee and the bottom half of his right leg flopped down like a gummy worm is one I will never forget. I grabbed his ankle and gently lifted it up in line as fast as I could while calling for help, but I could instantly tell both bones in that leg were broken. I looked at him and he just stared back at me like 'Mom, I've been trying to tell you for over an hour - start reading my mind already' (I now need to have shirts printed with the phrase "Mama Trauma for the Trauma Mama" - I promise that is going to be another blog as soon as I can breathe). Of course speaking of Trauma, we had to go to the hospital I swore we would never go to, but thankfully some phone calls had our children's hospital paving the way to make it easier for us.

After X-Rays confirmed both bones were broken, with Daddy keeping Mom calm-ish, William was given Katamine while laying in Mommy's arms and the doctor was able to do an open reduction with temporary fixation (basically they pulled the leg in both directions to get the bones back in allignment and put a temporary cast that is hard on the bottom but held together with tensor bandages). We will find out more soon but there it is. We don't have answers yet as to why this happened or what will happen next. He is being an incredible trooper and while needing pain meds on a steady basis, he is being kept relatively comfy.