Nightmare

Yesterday was one of the worst days of my life. It started at about 6am, when we were getting the kids ready to go to their grandparents' house before we went to work. They were going to stay the night there and we were going to do some Christmas shopping that evening.

We have a shoe cabinet in the play room, a large, heavy shelf with three doors that pull out to display shoes like this. As I was getting dressed, I heard Alex say, "Momma, shoes"...and then I heard a crash and instant screaming. I ran into the play room to see the cabinet toppled over, on top of Alex, who was face down and screaming. I screamed for Josh and pulled the cabinet off of him and pulled him out. I set him on the kitchen counter to check him over and calm him down. I didn't see any injuries and got him somewhat calmed down so I stood him up on the kitchen floor. He collapsed, instantly. He couldn't stand. And he was screaming.

I became hysterical at that point, Josh had to calm me down and get me to focus, especially because Aurora was there. She said that as Alex was trying to open a drawer on the shoe cabinet, and as the same time he was opening it, one of our cats jumped on top of it, causing it to come down.

We got them in the car and drove to the emergency room. We couldn't even get him out of his car seat, he was flinching and screaming. I was terrified he had a back injury. Josh carried him in, car seat and all. At the ER they did xrays and determined that his left femur was broken in his leg. They were also worried about abdominal injuries because of the amount of force it would have taken to break that bone. We were transferred by ambulance to the Pediatric hospital downtown.

At the pediatric hospital they did comprehensive xrays to check everything. Fortunately there were no internal injuries and the femur was the only break. It is what they call a spiral fracture, which means he was most likely turning away from the cabinet as it came down. He had to go into the OR and be put to sleep and have the bone reset and a cast put on. However, since the break was in the femur, and they need to keep his hip still, he is basically in a cast from the chest down. It goes from his chest all the way down to his toes on the leg that was broken and halfway down the other leg. My poor baby is in a body cast and has to be in it for at least 3 weeks, at which point they will cut it down to just the one leg. And it is REALLY heavy.

So it is basically like having a 60 pound newborn for the next couple of weeks. He can't move in it. The orthopedic surgeon said that they will often find a way to be mobile, but I don't see how. We have to prop him up with pillows to enable him to be in a semi-upright position. To transport him in a car he has to lay down in the back seat with a special harness on. To change his diapers we have to shove a newborn diaper up into the hole they made in the cast and then put a bigger diaper over the whole thing. This requires two people to lift him up to put the diaper on. He wakes frequently at night because he can't move and is scared or in pain. It's going to be a long couple of weeks.

We have a checkup with the ortho in a week and a half. At 3 weeks they will do xrays and see if they can cut the cast down to just the one leg, which will then stay on for another couple of weeks. When children this age break their bones, they often grow back longer as they heal, so she set the bone a little short to hopefully compensate and keep the leg from becoming longer than the other one. He will not need physical therapy when the cast is removed, but may go through the motions of learning to walk again - crawling, pulling up, and then walking. So yes, like having a (heavy) baby all over again. I will post pictures today when I get a chance.