Addy injures her leg....

I know I'm a little late in writing this post. No, make that a lot late. I was waiting until we found out what was wrong & then once we did, well we've just been so busy. Most of you know already everything that Addy went through but for those of you who don't, I'm going to start from the beginning.

In the wee hours of September 2nd (yes, I have this date memorized, don't even have to look it up) Addy woke up & she couldn't go back to sleep. She wanted to go watch TV so I got up with her & we walked into the playroom. As Addy was about to crawl up on the couch, she hit her right knee on the coffee table & started crying. She cried for a little while & then stopped. And then on & off for about an hour or two until she fell back asleep. (I honestly didn't think her hitting her knee was a big deal. We've all banged our knee at some point & it hurts, sure, but not that bad. I really thought she was crying from pure exhaustion & not from her leg hurting but boy was I WRONG!)  Once she fell asleep, I carried her back to her bed & she slept until I went to wake her up for school.  I woke her up like usual but she wouldn't get out of her bed. So I picked her up but when I tried to put her down, she wouldn't stand. She sat on the ground & wouldn't stand or walk. I thought she was being stubborn & didn't want to go to school. So I picked her up & brought her to the couch & proceeded to get her ready for school. I always make her go to the potty right before we leave for school but once again, she was refusing to walk so I picked her up, carried her to the bathroom & set her down on the potty. At this point I was pretty sure that something was going on and when she tried to get off the potty I knew for sure. She tried to stand & had to grab the bathroom counter for support. It's like her leg gave out under her. I picked her up & sat her on the counter & looked at & felt her knee. I asked her if it hurt & she told me yes. So I called the doctor. Better to be safe than sorry I thought.

Addy's regular pediatrician was out of the office that morning, but we were able to get in with another doctor in the office. Dr. Byrd had told us previously if he's not in to see Dr. Lewis, so I knew that we were still in good hands. Dr. Lewis agreed that Addy was ovbiously in a lot of pain & thought that her knee was probably just bruised (& btw, by this point there was a visible bruise) but wanted to send us to see an orthopedic to be sure. Since our pediatrician is at the Kelsey-Seybold clinic, we didn't even have to leave the building. She called downstairs & ortho said they would fit us in. Great!

So I take Addy to ortho. They take x rays of her knee & then we see the doctor. He says that the x rays are clean & don't show anything broken. Again, that's great! BUT Addy is still in A LOT of PAIN!! What are we going to do about this doctor? He says that he wants to refer us to a pediatric orthopedic in the med center. I say okay, let's go see him. We make an appointment, it's 1 week away. Until then, Addy is to wear a brace to help keep her leg straight.

Addy didn't like to put the brace on but it did help to ease her pain. It supported her leg & she was able to walk again. Yay! So we're thinking, ok, it's just a bad bruise, it's not broken, she can walk again, that's great! She wears the brace for 1 week & then we go to the med center & see the pediatric ortho, Dr. Whalen.

Dr. Whalen looks at Addy & says that she is fine & that she needs to stop wearing her brace. He said that she should be fine, but he wanted to make a follow up appointment for one week away if needed but he thought that we would be able to cancel the appointment. That was Thursday. Over the weekend, Addy walked a little & we thought she just needed to build up the strength in her leg again. On Monday, Nick & I left for our trip to Hawaii & told Pat & Eddie to make her walk while we were gone.

So we were in Hawaii for a week. Updates from Pat are that Addy's not doing great, that she's wanting to walk less & less & that she needs to go back to the doctor. We got home on Sunday morning & I already had her follow up appt with Dr. Whalen booked for Monday morning, so we went back to see him.

He took another set of x rays but said once again, they showed nothing was wrong. I explained how she had regressed since taking the brace off. With the brace she could walk, without she could not. I asked him about crutches, he said she was too little for them. So I asked him about physical therapy. He said that he didn't think she needed it. I told him that she was in Kindergarten & that she wasn't walking at school. That we NEEDED to do something to get her walking again & also that she was still in a lot of pain EVERY TIME she moved. He told me that it was all in her mind & that I could keep her out of school for a month while I rehabbed her at home. And then he gave me a note saying that she could return to school in a month. CRAZY!!!!

I went home, dropped Addy off with Nick & then went to Addy's school in hopes that her teacher would still be there. Luckily she was. I told her what the doctor said & that I didn't want to keep Addy out of school for a month. It was only the 3rd week of school. She would have to relearn all the rules & procedures & it would be like starting the year over again. Mrs. Cardenas agreed with me & said that they would do whatever they could to help her. That included carrying Addy around & pulling her in a wagon. (Her teachers really are the BEST!!)

Then I went back home & called Texas Children's Hospital & made an appointment with Dr. David Antekeier.  The soonest appt was 2 weeks away & that was really a blessing because it usually takes A LOT longer to get an appt at TX Children's. During that 2 weeks though, I took Addy to another ortho that one of her occupational therapists had recommended. Dr. Phan asked me to bring the x rays of her knee & so I did.  He looked them over & agreed that it was not broken. I once again voiced my concern that Addy was in a lot of pain. Her teachers had been pulling her in a wagon at school. I was carrying her around the house. She yelled out in pain every time she moved her leg. She kept her knee bent & pulled in close to her body at all times, even when she was sleeping. I asked him about doing an MRI & so he set one up.

Addy had the MRI done about a week later. She was not sedated for the procedure but Dr. Phan did prescribe her tylenol with codeine to help relax her. I scheduled the MRI for 9 pm thinking that with the tylenol & the late time that she would fall asleep. I was wrong! She did not like the MRI at all & cried most of the time because they had to straighten out her leg. Luckily, I was able to stand right beside the machine & sing to her & comfort her. It was a LONG 45 minutes & I felt really bad for my baby girl. And after all that, the tech told me that Addy moved a lot & didn't know if they would even be able to read the scans.

But they were. It took about another week to get those results from Dr. Phan. He told me that the MRI came out clean and that he wanted to refer me to TX Children's. And I told him that I already had an appt scheduled, so we were set there. I told him that during the MRI, the tylenol with codeine did not make Addy go to sleep, but it did help take away her pain. When we got home from the MRI, she moved her leg around (didn't walk though) and just seemed to feel better. So Dr. Phan gave her a prescription for the tylenol.

So at this point, it's been a month since Addy has walked. She's had 2 sets of x rays & an MRI & is now taking a narcotic. All from hitting her knee on the coffee table. My poor baby girl :(

The next week we go & see Dr. Antekeier at Texas Children's. And he LISTENS!!!!!! He orders blood work & a bone scan to check and see if we can find out what is going on. We do the blood work immediately following this appt & get the results the next day. Her SED rate was slightly elevated which was a indication of inflammation. So Dr. Antekeier puts her on an anti inflammatory 4 times a day. He also says to stop giving her the tylenol with codeine & prescribes her vicodin instead. I scheduled the bone scan for the following week. And while we were waiting for the bone scan, I could see that the anti inflammatory was starting to help Addy feel better!

I had to bring Addy to Texas Children's Hospital in the med center to have her bone scan. They sedated her for it, which made it a lot easier on her (and me too!) The nurses had a problem getting an iv line in her & had to try 4 times before they could get one to stay, poor thing. But once they did get it in, and the doctor came, she passed right out! The scan took about an hour. When it was complete, the doctors wheeled her up to recovery & woke her up.

About a week after the bone scan, we went back to see Dr. Antekeier & got the results. The scan showed an asymmetrical radiotracer uptake on the right tibia, which means that she injured the growth plate on the top of her right tibia. Dr. Antekeier said that it was either a subacute fracture that was already starting to heal or either just inflammed. Either way, he said that there are a lot of nerve endings in the growth plate & when Addy hit it on the coffee table it probably exploded in pain. He said to take her off the vicodin & start weening her off the anti inflammatory medicine. And he also prescribed physcial therapy twice a week for 4 weeks.  He also said that the growth plate on the tibia is a bad place to injure because if its hurt in a certain way, it can make your bone start to turn inward & grow crooked. Because of that, Addy has to go back next month & have another set of x rays done & Dr. Antekeier will compare them with her previous x rays. But I think everything will turn out fine.

So at this point & time, Addy is walking! Walking & running & skipping & jumping & dancing! She has finished her physical therapy (only 3 weeks because of Thanksgiving), is off her vicodin & taking the anti inflammatory medicine only once a day. She just feels SO MUCH BETTER and because of that she is back to her happy healthy self!