It Took 10 Years ...

... but Teddy finally has his first broken bone. At least, the first one we've realized was broken because honestly, only God knows how many concussions he's had and if anything else ever was broken. I mean, there was the time we were certain he broke his nose, but that was just a ruptured cyst that resulted in a couple intense surgeries and some quality time with a good ENT doctor. 

Anyways, back to the current situation. A week ago Teddy was trying to load a 4x4 wooden post into the back of a UTV (think about as high as his head) when he dropped it on his bare foot. Dave carried him into the house screaming (Teddy, not Dave). He's not a big fan of ice packs (or bandaids), but we tried to apply ice, gave him Ibuprofen and snuggled him while we ate supper. He was still crying after supper, which meant it really hurt, so we headed to the walk-in clinic to get it checked. They did x-rays just in case, which went much smoother than I expected. Results were expected the next day due to the holiday.

The next morning he was limping, but he was walking on it (mostly walking on the side of his foot). So we knew it still hurt, but we figured it was just bruised. Nope, turns out the kid was walking on a fractured toe/foot. I say foot because the break is higher up in the toe bone, so it's what you'd consider the top of your foot in non-medical terms. The walk-in nurse who called with the results said to ice it (which he won't tolerate) and keep him non-weight bearing until he saw orthopedics. I believe I kindly informed her that without sedatives, there was no way to keep him from being weight bearing.

So the next day we sent him to school with a detailed note and his chair, noting that he'd still be walking and moving because we know Teddy but to please try to limit his activity and use his chair. We finally got his ortho visit scheduled for Friday (so 5 days after the incident) and confirmed with his primary care doctor that we could and should try to use the boot we borrowed from a neighbor. Up until that visit, while we tried to limit his activity as much as we could, he still proved he could walk, run and jump with a fractured toe. 

Fractured toe is not enough to slow down Teddy.

The irony is not lost on me that my last blog post was about saying farewell to our backpack carrier because less than 2 weeks later we had a child who was supposed to be not weight bearing. We used his 2 chairs that we have (one for transports at school and the bulkier fun chair at home before/after the bus). We put a trike in the house to encourage him to ride it rather than walk. And we carried him up the stairs every night and encouraged him to butt scoot down the stairs. So, the child carrier still would have been handy for the next 5 weeks in other words.

Ortho believes it's not completely broken all the way through and wants to have follow-up x-rays again in a week to be certain nothing's out of place. We discussed a cast but determined the boot or his AFO/shoe is sufficient, but he's not to bear any weight without that additional support. That means he's even supposed to wear it at night, which seems so darn miserable.

He's tolerating the boot really well, except for when he gets home from school and just wants it off. As long as he stays busy, he'll leave it alone. We also have tape to wrap it if needed, so he can't just remove the boot. Because we can't stand the thought of wearing the boot non-stop (and it does rub on his leg just because he never stops moving), Dave has been sleeping with him at night. That way we can forego the boot and just put it on right away when he wakes up before he starts moving around. 

It's still going to be a long 6 weeks (hopefully only that if all heals as expected), but at least we have one week done!