Chicken Legs

 

NOT Ben's leg!!

So Ben wakes up last Saturday morning screaming for Mom because he cannot move his left leg.  I ran in to see what was going on and he tells me he cannot move it, cannot straighten it, cannot put any weight on it.  He barely let me touch it to see if I could tell what was wrong.  Rachel came in to see what was going on.  She cannot get him to move either.  The screaming even woke Anna up.

The only problem is that with Ben, it is sometimes difficult to tell the difference between a hang nail and a broken leg -- they both illicit the same response.  So when something like this arises, it is difficult to judge the actual degree of concern to express.  Do we call for an ambulance?  Do we tell him to be quiet and go back to sleep?  What does a parent do?

We decided to get out the crutches and let him ambulate with assistance, and we were off to Anna's soccer game.  Not only does the team suffer its first loss, and a heart-breaking one at that, but Ben also has an issue.  When we are arriving at the game, Ben announces he will just stay in the van and play the iPad.  Wonderful!  I don't have to carry him anywhere.  It was a nice day and we left the windows open for him.  I also left my phone with him to text Rachel if he needed anything.  He was doing just fine and we thought all was good.

Reenactment of Ben's fall, minus the car!

Apparently somewhere at the beginning of the fourth quarter, Ben decides to get out of the van to go say hi to some friends.  He tries using the crutches on rocky, uneven ground, and loses the battle of coordination when he falls down.  It happens to be behind a car.  Thankfully, family friend Barbara Mullen sees this happen, and while she is not big enough to help pick him up, she is able to call Rachel, who comes over to help him back onto his feet.  He stayed where he was, but at least he wasn't sprawled out in the parking lot!   When the game ended, I came over and had to carry him back to the van.

That pretty much made up our minds -- if he cannot even get up when he falls.  I called the Urgent Care center to make sure they took x-rays, and we were on our way. My greatest concern was that something was broken because of his inability to use the leg.  Of course "urgent care" doesn't mean quick care, as Anna pointed out to everyone!  We sat for a while because they only had one doctor there on a day when other doctor's offices are closed (how this makes sense to those doing the scheduling, I will never understand!).  When we were finally seen, they at least get a wheelchair for him.  He learned very quickly how to wheel himself around and wanted to learn to do wheelies, until I told him no.  He liked the wheelchair and wanted to get one for home until we reminded him about the steps on the deck and how we were not building a ramp for this!

The doctor was a sadist, as they always are with this kind of injury, and he poked and prodded and moved the leg around until Ben's silent tears were too much for Rachel to handle.  They were both crying, but the doctor did not find any signs of instability in the knee.  He did order an x-ray, which came back negative, but at least it was good information.  Four hours after arriving, we left with a prognosis of some swelling, take some ibuprofen, and do the RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) things that we were planning to do anyway.  Better safe than sorry, and at least we knew it wasn't something significant!

Sunday saw a little movement returned to his leg, which was good, but we mostly sat around watching tv, so he didn't move it too much.  We did use a heating pad, thanks to Wendy Morris! And we kept it elevated most of the day.  Monday, he woke up, could put some weight on it, and actually took five steps to the door of his room.  But the pain was still there and he went back to crutches.  Got through the school day okay.  Then Monday night, he went home with a friend before Boy Scouts that evening, and found he had full use of his leg again without any pain. I saw him at the meeting walking around like normal -- not even a limp.

As suddenly as it had come on, it disappeared.  Strange!

We played out the week and he ended up being just fine.  Crutches went back into the closet and we are left to wonder if it was just growing pains or something more important!  It hasn't come back yet, so while we are happy that he is back to his usual routine, we certainly pray that it really is not something just waiting to return when we aren't ready.