And the beat goes on...

Let me 1st start by saying I had a great Mom's day! No, I didn't get to take Caroline to the zoo, nor did we get to celebrate our 1 year anniversary, but I still had a great day! My daughter was not feeling good most of the day, but as soon as we got to Nana and Pop's last night for dinner, she seemed much better. We still couldn't pick her up without tears, or change her diaper without tears, but I got a few pictures taken with her and she is smiling! That was the best gift ever!
I called our orthopedic at 8:00 this morning. Actually I called at 7:45, to double check they opened at 8 in the morning! And all I had to do was hit speed dial. After explaining what happened to Caroline, and talking to Dr. Herndon's assistant it was decided that best case would be to go to the Children's ER. Our ortho dr, just so happened to be doing surgeries in the hospital today, so if needed we could see him or one of his residents. So by 9 AM, Web and I are armed. And I mean armed. My diaper bag is overloaded with things to keep Caroline occupied. I had 3 bottles, 3 books, toys galore, burp cloths, blanket, you name it I had it. We expected the wait when we 1st got there would take forever, but we were in an exam room within minutes and we saw an ER dr, immediately. He knew what OI was and had some experience, so that was a bonus. He also was a dad himself, so he understood how precious our child is in our eyes, and he treated her like one of his own. We knew he would order x-rays, but he gave her some oral oxycodone to help ease the pain. Let me tell you it didn't help. She still cried when we had to pull her legs down. What I really like about Children's is they let me do it, I got to pull her leg, instead of a tech that doesn't know her very well. So Caroline got to see my face the whole time. I like to think that helped some, even if she still cried! The ER dr. brought Web and I one by one to see the x-ray and it was plain as day. Bless her heart. Fracture in her right femur. A blind man could see it. I mean I have seen many x-rays, and by far not a tech, but this was so obvious. The ER dr. told us that he would call our ortho office and they would look at the films to see if we needed surgery, cast or just let it heal on its own. I told them that if we just let it be, someone needed to tell us how to handle her, because every time we picked her up, the flood gates opened for both Caroline and her parents. Ortho residents decided we needed to do a spica cast. Well we immediately went into protective parent mode, because our ortho dr, has told us numerous times Caroline is too young to put in a cast, and that it would stunt her growth. So we asked specifically that the ER dr, tell the ortho dr. to tell Dr. Herndon (ortho dr.) so he could know what was going on. We didn't want to fight with residents that we were refusing a hard cast. We waited for around 30 minutes, and hooray our Dr. Herndon comes down the hall with this odd contraption. We were so happy to see him. He said no way would we put her in a hard cast, but a soft spica cast! Yeah! The thought of changing a diaper with a hard cast made me ill. How in the world would we keep that dry?
She was then given fentynyl which is a nasal narcotic that works within 1 minute and lasts approximately 20 minutes. Not that she wouldn't be in some pain when they soft cast her, but it would help some. Next thing you know, Caroline is being whisked on the metal contraption, right leg is moved into position, Caroline starts bawling and they started. I looked at the clock and it was exactly 12:35. I just stood there with tears down my face and watched the clock as my Sweet Caroline was being wrapped. Finally the nurse at 12:40 (again still staring at the clock) asked if I could hold her hand and Dr. Herndon said yes. As soon as I got there, our Sweet Caroline calmed down. She just needed her mommy! Caroline is now the owner of a full, soft body cast. Yes, full body cast up to her chest. Bad news. She doesn't fit in her car seat. So after the dr. is done, we sat in the ER room for another 2 hours waiting on Safe Kids. It's an organization at the hospital that helps families get their children home safely. So for $25 we got a new car seat! HA! We tried to fit her in ours, but she is just too wide. Of course, the car seat is on loan.
What have we learned? Well it was good that we waited until Monday, because we were able to see our surgeon. Who knows what would have happened over the weekend with the on call resident. Caroline is awesome at a hospital. Her parents are super emotional people. And Caroline is probably the cutest full body casted baby you will ever lay eyes on.
Funny thing happened when we came home from the hospital. I ran to Walgreens to pick up her size Newborn and Size 5 diapers! That's a whole other blog, but trust when I say changing her diaper has just become the worst chore. Caroline found a way to unwrap a piece of her ace bandage. So tomorrow morning we go back to Children's for Dr. Herndon to re-wrap her. Only our daughter would find a way to get out!
She also can't get comfy, so as I type this, Web is trying to get her to sleep. Sadly there is no comfy position for a baby with a full body cast. We are hoping she only has to wear the cast for 2-3 weeks.
Non-OI babies with femur fractures heal within 6-8 weeks, but OI babies are anomalies and they have no idea how long it will take to heal. So it's anyones guess. All in all, we are exhausted! What a day! To think this day last year we were on our way to our European honeymoon and today we spent 6 hours at Children's ER. What a difference a year makes!
Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, positive thinking. Web and I almost feel better that the 1st femur fracture is done. We now know what to expect, what to do, and we will have a little experience for the next time!