Whew
jayfurr sent me a nudge (as well as a birthday present, thank you!) so I'll go ahead and describe our latest medical drama. For those who cannot handle suspense, we were not eaten by the sharks at this time.
Yesterday I got a call from MM's lead teacher that another teacher at the day care had fallen while holding her. They were most concerned about head injuries, of course, but they had looked her over carefully and couldn't find any evidence of anything wrong. However, she was extremely upset. They were thinking at that point that she was just very scared, but they were calling me to let me know.
A few hours later they called back to say that she had not calmed down, and was still crying. This is very unlike our MM, who is generally a very easy-going baby, so I went over to get her. Our doctor's office had closed by then for the day, so I took her to an urgent care near our house that we've used before and which is generally very good. I couldn't find anything wrong with her myself, and was still half convinced it was just emotional trauma, because every time I leaned over at all so that she swayed in my arms, she'd cry and cling to me like a baby monkey. The urgent care couldn't see anything that I couldn't, so we all shrugged and I took her home.
She had a decent night's sleep, but was pretty cranky this morning. I still wasn't quite sure what was wrong - until I tried to stand her up in front of her little play tables to hang out for a minute while I got our stuff together. She collapsed to the ground and SHRIEKED. OK, then, leg problem. Once I thought back, I realized I hadn't seen her crawl or try to stand since the incident; she'd been so upset I'd been holding her nearly all the time. I felt stupid that I hadn't figured that out earlier, but although I knew she was clinging to me it hadn't been obvious why.
We went off to get X-rays, which luckily we were able to do right near the house, and they confirmed she had a fracture in her left upper leg, right above the knee. The really good news is that it was just what they call a buckle fracture, which means that it didn't need setting and didn't even need a full cast. They've given her a plaster splint but basically it's just a comfort measure; the leg will heal on its own, and MM can do anything she wants to. If it hurts, she'll stop.
So I spent the morning very worried, but the final verdict was that it was about the least problematic kind of leg fracture possible, which is just terrific news. MM is not thrilled about the splint or pain in her knee, but she's being a trouper about it. Not a relaxing birthday but in the end a good one!