Journey to the Cast

This past Saturday morning, Banner was playing around with Sam and Quinn just like they always do on the weekends. Banner was standing on the black arm chair in our den. Sam was leaning up against it on the carpet. Banner was jumping from the couch on to his daddy's back, and he did it several times without a problem. I watched, thinking it was a perfectly safe activity since he was literally a couple inches from his father's back which he was leaning on and jumping onto. Then, Banner did it one last time. This time, though, as he landed the two or three inches onto Sam's back, he wailed. Through tears, he told us that his foot was hurting. We couldn't see any visible markings (scratch/scrape), but he insisted he hurt his ankle. We asked if he could move it, and he could, but once he put any weight on it, he said it hurt more.

Sam was supposed to meet a friend at the park after getting some items we needed for our first soccer practice that was coming up in a few days. After a few minutes of shopping, it was obvious that Banner could not walk well on this foot and was truly hurt. Sam called me and we decided he needed to cancel their park plans and try to get Banner to the doctor's office, which was just around the corner. Luckily, he caught them before closing early after a few Saturday hours. The doctor did a few mobility tests and then said that she thinks he may have twisted a few ligaments, but otherwise, he seemed okay. She told us to call her on Monday if he was still limping then, to use Motrin for pain, to help him get off of his foot with rest, and "take his lead" when it comes to activity (since kids seem to listen to their bodies better than adults listen to theirs). So, we did. We let him play at the splash park that afternoon at a friend's birthday party. We let him go meet and greet his new soccer coach at the park with his new teammates.

And the next day, he was the same. Although, he was crawling a lot to get around faster and to avoid limping. By the end of the day Monday, when things hadn't improved, we let the doctor know on Tuesday morning. She said we should take him to the radiology clinic to get an X-ray. But, we kept thinking that if he could walk on it, and even jump or run when he wanted, surely he didn't have a broken bone. An X-ray would only be able to tell us that, not that it was sprained or twisted or bruised. So, we didn't really want to unnecessarily spend money on a test that would tell us what we thought we already knew. I even took Banner to the school nurse at his preschool to check it and get her opinion. She agreed it was most likely not broken.

And, lo and behold, when we finally decided to get the X-ray on Wednesday morning (before soccer practice later that day), the X-ray showed no break or fracture, and the radiologist agreed - no break or fracture. So, with that information, we allowed Banner to participate in his first soccer practice that afternoon. He limped through it, like he had everything else since Saturday, and he walked with his toes pointing outward, but he never complained or said he was in pain. We continued to give Motrin to control the very little swelling we were seeing, and we iced it every now and then, but that was it.

Then, Thursday morning came, and when Banner was limping and "cruising" along our furniture the same way he had when he was 9-months-old, we knew soccer practice had been a bad decision. We had been told to call the pediatrician (again) if Banner was still limping on it on Thursday, so we called, and they made a referral to an orthopedist. We kept Banner home from school that day because we really needed him off his foot all day. Keeping an active, rambunctious little boy off his foot is a challenge for anyone - we didn't want to ask his teachers to have to deal with that, so I did (and Grandma did, too!).

Sam made an appointment with an orthopedist who could see us Friday/this morning. I waited at home with Quinn who needed to nap, and an hour after the appointment time, I received this picture via text:

Then, Sam called me, and I answered saying, "Okay, I see the boot. What'd the doctor say?!" He said, "Um, that's not a boot. That's a cast." So, I looked closer, and was immediately confused. He gave me the scoop, including telling me that Banner picked the black cast, what a trooper Banner was, and all the rules for the next four weeks - and the four after that. I still had some questions, so I called the doctor myself, and here's what I learned:

Banner has a (suspected) fracture in his left distal fibula. It was not seen on the X-ray because it's in the growth plate. The orthopedist has the advantage over the radiologist by being able to examine the patient and palpate the ankle. Based on Banner's tender areas and where he pointed that he was hurting, the doctor knows there is a fracture (but it's "suspected" because you can't physically see the fracture). Because the fracture is on the growth plate, Banner will be reevaluated months after his cast is removed to make sure there are no long-term effects. So, for now, we wait and hope that his ankle heals normally. He'll be in a cast for 4 weeks, and at the end of September, he will hopefully have it removed, and then he'll have to "take it easy" for 4 more weeks. (SO... so long soccer for this season. Poor guy was SO excited about starting the sport and learning how to play from Coach David.)

We've only survived one day of the cast, and I can already tell it's gonna be a bitch. I'm hoping Banner can learn to sleep in it, that he can learn to keep the cast shoe on (which helps him walk and keep the cast from breaking), that he won't use it as a weapon much longer, and that he can learn to get his underwear, pants, and shorts on over the cast. Without a shoe on his right foot, he's pretty lopsided and walks very unevenly, so there's that issue, too. And, swim lessons start back up in a couple weeks, and we'll see if we decide to trust the airtight cover that we bought so he can still participate (tonight's bath was quite a fiasco with that thing, so we finally just gave in and gave him a bath in the kitchen sink... while Quinn had the whole bathtub to himself - my, how we've switched places in this house! Seriously - Quinn starts walking, and Banner stops. Banner's in the sink for baths and Quinn's in the big tub!?) But, perhaps the most challenging task will be keeping him out of the sandbox on the school playground! It worries me that he'll get that sand stuck down in that cast for the next month! OUCH!

So, that's the story. Basically, it may be a LONG 4 weeks for this boy - and for his parents, neither of whom ever had to wear a cast! This is all new territory for us, so wish us luck!