When you have a child with brittle bones you know the cry. It’s very different than their normal “I fell and hurt my knee” cry and sends you running. You know they’ve broken, and now you have to asses the situation. What are they holding, did they hurt their back/ neck, is anything deformed/ sticking out etc. as you mentally go through a checklist in your head to see what your next steps will be.
Sometimes I wonder how such a simple fall can cause such a drastic break as she’s had hard tumbles before and was perfectly fine. I didn’t see how she fell, but she slipped on a sock and landed in a way to fracture her left femur. Once I knew she was going to be ok for a few minutes without me, I asked my husband to be with her while I quickly got dressed and ready to head to the hospital. It’s not fast enough, but I was getting ready turbo speed. Once I had everything ready to go, we tried putting her into the rear facing car seat. I knew my husband would have to flip it foreword facing now. It hurt her being in rear facing and caused more discomfort.
Because of COVID, we had to go through screening and than wait for triage to see us. I swear it felt like the longest wait ever and i just wanted to demand someone come right now! Thankfully, she was comfy in my arms and no longer screaming in pain. Triage nurse seen us than placed us into their back area instead of the waiting room. It took a while for them to come and do the X-ray & then to see the doctor. Her femur was displaced. We’ve never dealt with such a big bone being displaced.
Femur fractures in young kids require a cast called a spica. The cast goes from the foot to the top of the leg, than they have to wrap the mid section of their stomach by bellybutton. It needs to be very well supported and a bit of a pain to do. When the child is in so much pain and needs to be lifted etc, it’s easier and less painful for the child to be sedated. Let me tell you though, I was not mentally ready to actually see her sedated and how her body reacted from the drugs. She was left very exposed during the whole process with multiple people in the room trying to get the casting done. It wasn’t very well executed, and since she kinda woke up a little during the process the Dr ordered more drugs. I should of trusted my gut and said no. She wasn’t moving, making any sounds etc so I’m not sure why more drugs where needed. If there’s ever a next time I’ll remember to use my voice and say no.
All I’m going to say about the next two days is that I got nowhere with trying to contact doctors and hospitals that specialize in OI care to see my daughter. ER doctors wouldn’t give her pain medication. We seen the local ortho who just gave her Acetaminophen with codeine. Femur fractures are extremely painful and need a stronger pain medication. For some reason the doctors in my region don’t want to prescribe her proper relief whenever she fractures. The first 5 days where not fun trying to manage through all the pain. All she wanted to do was hold my hand or arm and be near me.
The ortho said we didn’t need surgery and basically it should heal fine. The thing with OI kids/ bones, there is a high chance of having the femur re-fracture in the same spot now. A lot of kids end up getting FD rods placed into the bone so that the bone doesn’t get displaced when fractured, and many kids stop fracturing when one is placed. This may be something we have to think about and talk with Montreal Shriners to see if they think one is needed. (Or hopefully she’ll never fracture it again🤞🏻) Just waiting for all this COVID stuff to be better managed in the near future and we can return for the girls’ care.
*** I’ll update with a part two because I think the next part deserves an entire post of its own !!
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