Struggles

Well, I thought I could handle not taking Caroline to the orthopedic pediatrician about her leg. But I was wrong Every time I rubbed my finger over her little bone, I could feel it swollen and there is a bump that kept bugging me. Deep down I knew it was a fracture, but I wanted to double check. So I called the office and they worked her in last Thursday. As I expected, they wanted to do an x-ray. This time I was prepared and armed. I had a bottle ready! But Caroline was more ready for it than we were! Web and I were both frightened because of how scary it was the last time. But luckily for us, it was the same radiology tech and she remembered us. It helped to see a familiar face! Caroline was awesome. She laid down on the table like a champ and they took 2 x-rays of her lower left leg. She definitely had a sign of a fracture. It was healing on its own and it was probably 2-3 weeks old. Unfortunately, the fracture is on the top of her tibia where her leg is bowed. She could constantly fracture this same location. If that's the case, then we will for sure need to put her in braces and eventually she will have rods inserted in her legs. We are all anxious to see how crawling and walking on that leg will progress. Right now it doesn't make sense to put her in any braces or a cast for her fractures, because that could stunt her growth. Good news is the doctor was very impressed with how much she has grown thus far! He had not seen her since before the holidays, and he was extremely happy with her progress!
What did we learn and what was the purpose? Well, I guess nothing. We learned that we know what a fracture looks like, even though we already knew it. I guess we did learn that our daughter is much stronger than her parents! She is a trooper! Another thing we learned is she is one strong baby. Web and I have both racked our brains trying to remember when or if she was so hurt that she cried over the fracture. Yes, she cries, especially when she is hungry! But we do not remember one specific cry where she hurt herself and fractured her leg. That's a good thing, but also scary. We want her to be able to tell us as she gets older that she has a boo boo. I guess we should just count our blessings that she is a strong little cookie!
On another note, I read some more about OI. I feel like we need to be as educated about OI as possible when we go to NIH in April. Unfortunately, some of the things I read depress me. About 50% of OI patients have blue or brown teeth that are "milky" in appearance. They baby teeth erupt with this color, it does not develop over time. This cannot be prevented nor can cleaning change the color to white. Also, once an OI patient loses their baby teeth, their permanent teeth will be of the same color, which will lead to crowns, etc. So once Caroline starts teething, we will know for sure if her teeth will be affected. From what I read, this "abnormality" varies widely with OI patients. There appears to be no correlation between the severity of her OI or the presence of tooth discoloration. So once again, we are in the dark about OI. Everything seems to be a guess. I can't wait until we go to NIH, so hopefully we can get some answers. Or at least, ask the questions.
Now every night when I say Caroline's prayers, I ask God for pearly whites. I pray that she is the 50% of OI patients that have white teeth. I know that this might seem like a small issue with all the big things we have on our plate, but she has the most beautiful smile and I want her to have pearly whites. I can deal with the braces, and the fractures that are in our future, but please dear Lord give her pearly whites. I am super anxious for her to cut her 1st tooth, but also scared.
Besides everything else, we are doing great! Caroline has found her voice, and wow! What a beautiful noise! She loves to talk and talk and talk. She also loves kicking her legs and arms! Which is awesome! Web and I love watching her grow and we look forward to her future milestones.

Dr. Kristine

I think Caroline has a new fracture. Recently I was at my dad's place and he pointed out that her lower left leg wasn't moving as much and that it looked bigger than the other leg. I rubbed my fingers over her leg and noticed that there was definitely some swelling and a bump. Now I am not even close to a doctor, but with OI you learn to diagnosis fractures on your own. Especially after the orthopedic told us that there is really nothing we can do for her at this young age. We just have to suck it up and it will heal on its own. Hopefully it will heal correctly, if not we will cross that bridge when it comes to it. I have decided not to call the orthopedic and take Caroline to see him, because all he would do is tell us this will happen and we can't blame ourselves. Of course, that is easier said than done. I have no idea how this could happen. We are super careful with her. Anytime a friend asks to hold her we specifically show them what to do, no one has dropped her, and nothing has fallen on her leg. So how in the heck could it have fractured? This alone with many others are questions that I have for Dr. OI at NIH. I know it was nothing Web and I did, but I still feel guilty because my little girl grimaces when her lower left leg is touched in the wrong way. I can still do our exercises with her, so that's good. I really don't want to stop any progress we have made. I am not writing this post for any pity or sadness. I am mainly writing it to remind myself that my daughter has OI. The last post I wrote how I forget that she has it, but then in less than 2 weeks something happens and here we are again, reminded of it.
On another note, I went to a friends baby shower yesterday! So much fun! And so good to see friends from Tulsa, that I haven't seen in a long time! I did catch myself giving opinions to the mom-to-be on what I would get, and what you do and do not need. I never thought I would be one of those moms, but it's amazing the things I have learned in the 3 months of being a mom. The trendy things are cute and fun, but not practical. A bath in the kitchen sink is much easier than a bath in a tub! A swaddle blanket is worth every penny because it helps Caroline go to sleep at night and I will use it for as long as I can. And yes there are some swaddle blankets that are better than others! In my opinion!
All in all life at the Browne home is great! Web is tackling house hunting again. We postponed it during the month of January, it wasn't a priority. I am trying to get Caroline back into a routine, if that's even possible, and Kelsey is still protecting us all!