it's broken?

well it has already begun. carter at the age of seven months has broken his first bone. he was a victim of neglect, as his mother left him on the bed unattended, from which he fell off and broke his femur. and his parents, being the caring and loving parents that they are, didn't even take him to the doctor until 5 days later. in our defense, he didn't cry enough to evoke panic or serious concern in either of us or his maternal grandmother (she was here when it happened). he cried the first day (but not a 'i broke my leg' cry) and we discovered that he would not put weight on his left leg when held in the standing position. but as the day progressed he seemed to be doing much better and we decided to wait and see how he felt the next day. there was no redness, bruising, swelling, deformity, he could move his leg and all his joints, and i was not able to locate a particular point of pain as i squeezed up and down his leg. so we waited. his behavior was mostly normal (note that he was also teething and had a diaper rash at this time) but still no weight on the leg. so when the flamingo stance thing didn't go away, we went to the doctor. after an xray, the doctor came in and told me his femur was broken.... after i realized that he wasn't joking, i felt terrible. poor kid, we had been squeezing and moving that poor leg around for days trying to diagnose what was wrong. i know i am possibly the worst mother i know. i saw the xrays and it was a break all the way across his femur right above his knee. thank heaven it was above the growth plate and the doctors say he should heal normally and will have no future problems. the next day we went to an orthopedic doctor (who told us he had a bi-cortical buckle fracture) and they casted his poor chubby leg. he held perfectly still and just like before he didn't even cry.



so this is carter while his leg was broken, but before we knew. he was still moving all around on it when it was broken (another reason i thought that for sure it wasn't broken).














this is carter at lake powell the day after he got his cast. he was a great baby the whole time and he didn't seem to mind hanging out in the pack and play.









and this is carter after he wiggled out of his cast. thankfully it was the day we already had an appointment.













and this is carter with his new removable splint. after we went to the doctor they said it was healing great and he was already making new bone. his skin was really red behind his knee so they decided to put the splint on so i can take it off, bathe him, and put cream on his poor skin. i think he likes his few moments of freedom.












the cast has not slowed him down; he scoots, and rolls, and sits, gets on his hands and knees and shimmies all over the place. the cast doesn't seem to bother him and for that i am grateful. hopefully he will only need it for a few more weeks. we love you carter