Lydia's Broken Leg

We have been quite busy the past few weeks.  Our excitement started three and a half weeks ago when Lydia fell in the play area of a nearby mall.  She has always been adventurous, and I didn't think anything was really wrong initially, though she refused to walk on the leg and just wanted me to hold her.  By the time we got home from the mall, Lydia still wouldn't put weight on her left leg, and I became more worried, but put her down for a nap to see if things improved.  I took her to the doctor after her nap and the nurse practitioner couldn't find anything wrong with the leg.  It wasn't swollen or bruised and Lydia let me wiggle her leg joints around.  The nurse practitioner gave me a referral for an x-ray, 'just in case', but told me I could wait until the next morning for the x-ray and see if Lydia would put weight on the leg by that time.  I don't think she thought there was anything wrong with Lydia's leg.  So the next morning when Lydia still wouldn't put weight on the leg, I went in for an x-ray, thinking I was spending the co-pay money just for peace of mind, only to get bad news.  When I asked the x-ray technician if she though everything looked okay, she gave me the 'I'm really not allowed to say anything' nonsense, and when I pressed her she admitted that she probably saw something.  I am a believer that technicians can usually diagnose as well as the doctors, so I knew that 'probably' seeing something, meant she was 100% sure, but wasn't allowed to say it.  Anyway, Lydia had broken her tibia in what was a typical 'toddler's break'.  

After letting the news settle, we managed to get a referral from the doctor for an orthopaedic surgeon and got an appointment scheduled.  Of course, my car managed to refuse to start while we were out and about (after I had pulled the car over to take a call from the doctor) and I had to get AAA to come and get it going.  It wasn't fun to wait in the car for an hour in a random boring location, with a squirmy and tired toddler, missing her nap, and in pain with a broken leg, not to mention that it was lunch time and I didn't have anything substantial to give the girls to eat besides snacks.  Luckily AAA got the car going and we drove straight to the orthopaedic surgeon to avoid relying on the car to start later.   

Lydia was brave and got her cast without crying.  Karina chose the red color for the cast.  Lydia was unlucky in that she needed a full leg cast.  The surgeon said she would be able to squirm out of a half-leg cast, since she is so young and short (relatively speaking).  Within a day of getting the cast, Lydia starting crawling on it.  She was obviously frustrated with her limited mobility.   She has been pretty crabby with the cast, and it has been frustrating for everyone.  I didn't realize how much I relied on her being independent and didn't appreciate that carrying around a nearly 30-pound toddler throughout the day is very exhausting. Definitely not the workout of carrying a 10-pound newborn. 

Nate celebrated his birthday a couple weeks ago, and we had a nice, quiet celebration with a tasty dinner after he came home from work.  He asked for a chocolate cake and Karina decided he needed 5 candles on the cake and she chose decorations and colors for the cake. Lydia still tells him 'Happy Birthday Daddy' 12 days later. 

About 10 days after getting the cast, she started walking on it, which helped somewhat with her mood. It let her do a lot more things, to everyone's relief.   Here are the girls 'jumping' on some bubble wrap (quotations are meant for Lydia's effort at jumping, not Karina's) .  

Coloring and playing in boxes are always hits, especially when Daddy would push the boxes with the girls in them around the house. 

It was funny to see Lydia learn to walk on her cast.  She started out by walking with her walker, and then progressed to walking independently.  It was the same process, and same toy, as when she was an infant.

Easter egg hunting was a big success this year.  Both girls had lots of fun.  Karina is not very competitive with it.  She was more concerned about Lydia being able to reach the eggs and kept helping her find them.  Karina purposely left eggs she found, to make sure Lydia would be able to get some too.  She is a very sweet and thoughtful girl.

Decorating Easter eggs is another fun activity we do every year:

Nate planned ahead and took some pictures of Lydia in just her diaper, so it would be easier to see the full cast in motion.  Lydia really didn't let it slow her down too much. 

I love this picture of Lydia running to get a troll from Karina's room:

Lydia has always been our daredevil and some of her accomplishments in a cast include: climbing up flights of stairs (she really is fearless!), going down fast slides (with me putting her at the top of bigger slides, and Lydia climbing up herself for small slides), dancing, spinning, doing somersaults, and jumping on a big trampoline (and laughing hysterically in the process as she bounced and fell).  Nothing scares the girl. 

Following is a picture of her cast after the technician sawed it off.  The noise and vibrations of the saw were traumatic for our poor girl.  A day later, Lydia still keeps announcing to us "Bye-bye red cast on".  Good-bye and don't come back!  The surgeon said the break was far from Lydia's growth plates, so there won't be any lingering issues for her later on. 

She still walks around like she has her cast on, with her one leg straight and dragging.  The surgeon told us that it would take a few days before she trusted her leg enough to walk normally on it, so we aren't terribly concerned.  She has also made a lot of progress even just today.