June 8, 2001 - Friday
We're actually not sure, but I think I broke Harry's leg. It was Wednesday afternoon when he and I were at the local playground. Harry loves playgrounds, especially the slides, and he's gotten comfortable enough with them that I can just watch him go down the smaller slides on his own. He'll slide down, then climb back up the steps and scoot on his butt over to the top of the slide again. But, he can get to the top of big slides, too, and will stand there with the same ambition, not realizing there's a bigger drop at the end. So, for those I'll hold him on my lap and go down with him. He seems to like that just as much and I think it's fun, too.

But, something happened today while we were going down one of the big slides together. It was one of those tube slide that you're inside and come out the other end and a little more than half way down I felt Harry's right sneaker touch down along the right bottom side. It wasn't like there was a big drag or some dramatic leg whip, just a slight resistance from the sole of Harry's sneaker touching the plastic of the slide. But, a split second later as we alit at the end of the tube and as I was putting Harry down on the ground, his face already showed the initial signs of distress. As soon as his right foot hit the ground it gave way, with an expression that I immediately assumed was a twisted ankle. His arms quickly moved upward toward me, both to steady himself from falling and in hopes that I would fix the problem. But, my comfort was limited.

From experience, I know that the pain of a twisted ankle can be great initially, but it ebbs reasonably quickly most of the time. Harry clutched my neck and body more intensely than I can ever remember, but he did not soon stop crying. We went to the car and I sat him down in his seat and tested his ankle. I hoped his continued screaming was from his realization that we were leaving the playground, but somehow that didn't seem likely.

That night he did not put weight on his right leg and regressed to crawling for moving about. Yesterday morning, there appeared to be mild improvement. Harry put some weight on his leg, albeit with a noticeable limp, and I took him to daycare still thinking, or hoping, he had twisted his ankle. Unfortunately, his leg did not improve through the course of the day and his daycare provider expressed concern that the pain seemed to be from higher in his leg than his ankle.

This morning a call to the doctor confirmed a visit and, likely, x-rays would be prudent. So, this afternoon, Harry and I spend almost three hours at the hospital trying to find the problem. It went fairly smoothly for a while. Aside for the surprise of the x-ray table moving underneath him, Harry did as well as could be expected with his first x-ray session. Good news: the x-rays of his leg came back negative. The bad news was that because, said his surrogate doctor, injuries to toddlers are so hard to predict, negative x-rays on the sore leg meant he'd go back and x-ray the other leg for comparison. Harry was not pleased to be back on the x-ray table and, well, he garnered great sympathy from the nurse. Then, with little to go on from the x-rays, Harry had to endure an ultrasound of his little hips to see if the problem were further up. While it's good to rule out possibilities, none of these tests answered what was actually making Harry limp.

Without definitive results, the doctor could only surmise that Harry had a tiny fracture in his leg that was not visible on the x-rays. Apparently, since toddlers' ligaments are so flexible, fractured bones are far more likely sprains and strains. A minor twisted or sprained ankle or knee would not hurt this long. Because toddlers heal so well, whatever problem Harry has is more likely than not to go away on its own, or so says the doctor. He also said to call again in a week if there isn't serious improvement. Fortunately, Harry doesn't seem to have any real interest in using the leg just now and maybe that will let it heal.


Comments, opinions?