One Step Forward. Two Steps Back.

One step forward, two steps back. No wonder we can’t get anywhere! I wrote an update on Laiyla last week. She is doing absolutely wonderfully with her arm. And thankfully so! She needs that arm right now! The poor kid is now on crutches. I feel terrible for her.

Here’s what happened. As you know, she has been doing really well with her arm and her recovery from AFM. She has been slowly and gradually getting her strength back and has been doing really well. So well, in fact, that she started training Jiu-Jitsu again last month. She even figured out last Saturday that she could do cartwheels again. Then this past Saturday happened.

We were at Jiu-Jitsu. Laiyla and RaeLynne were playing with all the other kids before class. Just like every other day before class. This was normal behavior. She was just fine with all the games they were playing. Class started and they lined up to start their warmups. She did fine through all the running portions and then started the “gymnastic” portion of the warmups. She made it through the first third of the warmups. While doing on of the warmup exercises, she jumped up from the mat and felt something pop in her foot.

She came over to me and said, “Mom, my foot really hurts.” She showed me where it hurt and said that it was really sore when I touched it. I didn’t see anything weird about her foot and told her to try to walk it off a little bit. I thought maybe something had just pulled or she rolled her ankle a little bit. Something simple. Normal sports “injury.” She started to jog back to the line to finish her warmups. She made it through a couple more exercises and came up limping really badly. Another mark in the “Horrible Mom” book.

She limped over to me and showed me her foot again. There was a huge bump on the side of her foot. And it was swelling. A lot. I told her to go show her dad. My husband was in the entryway talking to one of the other dads. He took a quick look at it and decided she should get an x-ray done. He and Laiyla left to go the three blocks to the Emergency Room to get her foot looked at.

I went back into the dojo to watch our other daughter finish the class and to let the coach know why she had left the class. He looked a little surprised and concerned, but class went on. The rest of class went off without a hitch. Once class was over, the other kids and I waited for Phillip and Laiyla to get back from the hospital.

While they were at the hospital, the ER doctor ordered X-rays. Laiyla did really well and got all the procedures done quickly and well. She was a trooper, as usual. Once she had all the X-rays taken, they brought her back to the room and they waited. A little while later, the ER doctor came in and told them he thought she may have a small break in her foot or it could be that the tendons had pulled a bone out of place. He looked at the X-ray, but said he couldn’t give them a definite answer because there wasn’t anyone on duty that day to actually read the X-ray. Apparently that hospital doesn’t require those people to work weekends. I knew we should have just gone to our regular hospital! Anyway, that’s what he told them, and that we will need to follow up with our regular doctor this week to find out what is wrong with her foot. He splinted her foot and sent her home with some crutches. Yay.

So, to the doctor we will go! Thankfully, I was able to get into our regular doctor today. It is next to impossible to get in to see him the same day! He’s almost always booked out for a month or better. God was definitely pulling some strings there!

We made it to her appointment just in time today. It didn’t even make it above zero for temperature today, so it took a little while to get the vehicle warmed up and everyone in it. Once we got to the appointment, we got in almost right away. That never happens. Like literally never happens. Our doctor is amazing, but he does have a habit of being very late for appointments. If you have a morning appointment, you are probably going to have a better chance of getting in quickly, but we had an afternoon appointment. But, we were able to get in right away. The nurse took her vitals and measurements and then we waited.

A few minutes later, our doctor came into the room. He looked surprised to see us. We weren’t supposed to have to bring Laiyla back to see him for her AFM until June. It’s February. We just saw him a couple months ago. Once he saw the crutches and foot all wrapped up, he just smiled and went about his work. He asked what happened. Laiyla told him she stood up. He just about fell out of his chair laughing at her. He told her that sounded like an injury an 80-year old would get, not a 10-year old! Our doctor is in his 70s, so he can be allowed to say something like that. He can have quite the sense of humor though!

He pulled up the X-rays that the other hospital had done. By that time, the radiologist had been able to read them and had stated that they were clear of breaks. He said that was a good thing. He began to unwrap her foot and cut off the bandages. This was the first time we had looked at her foot since she hurt it on Saturday. It was a lovely swelled up mess with some beautiful colors radiating throughout her foot. I think Laiyla was slightly surprised by the sight!

The doctor began to check out the foot. He tested her motion and she had no problem moving and rotating her foot, so he was able to rule out any ankle injury. He began to feel each of the bones in her toes and foot. He started with the bones on the side that seemed less sore. She didn’t even flinch when he ran his fingers over those. He got all the way to the bones on the side of her foot by her pinky toe. He was barely touching those since he knew that was the side that was hurting. He felt most of the bone, and Laiyla didn’t move at all. Until he hit “the spot.”

There was one spot on her foot that she just about went through the roof. He nodded his head when he brushed his hand over it. It wasn’t even pressure on her foot, and she almost lost it. He told us that it could very possibly be just a sprain, but since the pain was in one particular spot and she felt it so intensely, he felt it was more in line with a break of some sort. He stated that the part that Laiyla felt all the pain in was actually the growth plate, and since the growth plate doesn’t always show the breaks on an x-ray, that it could very well be that the growth plate was broken. Awesome.

He continued a few more things to see if he could rule out the break. He had her get down and try to put some pressure on it. That didn’t happen. He wanted her to try to walk on it for just a couple steps. Nope. He told her to grab her crutches and see if she could walk while using the crutches. She got her toes on the floor to rest them there, but that was all she could handle. She said the pain just “spread” when she put weight or pressure on her foot. After seeing how much pain she was in just from putting her toes on the floor to try to bear some weight, he said he’s 90% sure she broke her growth plate. Well, happy Monday!

He did tell us that the good thing about that type of break is that it’s not one that would be casted. He said she can’t hurt it any more than it already is, even if she puts pressure on it. He said there is still a small chance that it could just be a sprain, but, to be safe, he’s going to treat it like a break in the growth plate. That means that she will be either on crutches for six weeks or wearing a walking boot cast thing. He opted for the walking boot so that she could be a little more mobile. And she will be a little safer since we have mountains of snow and everything else is a skating rink right now. Crutches are definitely not anyone’s friend in the conditions we have at the moment. The other thing he is limiting her on is that she will not be able to go back to jiu-jitsu for three months. She should be 100% by the end of three months, but he wants to make sure those ligaments and tendons are back to the way they should be so she doesn’t have issues for the rest of her life. So, basically, he’s treating her for both a break and a sprain because he doesn’t want her to have issues.

I’m not going to lie. I’m so very thankful for a doctor who covers all the bases! And he does it the first time! He doesn’t wait until one thing doesn’t work to try the next thing and drag treatment on for months on end. That is why we love this doctor and will continue to see him for as long as possible.

He sent us down to physical therapy right after we saw him to get her fitted for her fancy walking boot. She’s not real enthused about the boot thing, but it’s better than crutches! Anyway, we went down there and were told that there are no openings for today, but we could get in right away tomorrow morning. Tomorrow morning it is!

So, here we are. Back to square one in a way. She will now be out of commission for three months. We are hoping that she will heal quickly and will be able to move around. She is already going stir crazy with not being able to walk. But, I am so very thankful that it wasn’t worse!

The main thing I’m going to take away from all this mess. Maybe I should start listening to my child a little more/better instead of trying to get her to “walk things off.” I guess I am this way because I always tell myself the same thing, so why should it be any different for my kids?! Well, guess what. It probably should be different for them. I know what I need to work on!

I hope you all have a great week!