Benjamin

Broken Leg

Last week our hero broke his leg, and its about time I mentioned it on here.

Week last thursday he fell over the arm on the sofa, and hit his head on the door. We thought he was jsut crying from that, so we calmed him down, and it was past his bed time, so he went to bed. Next day he went to my mum's house for her to look after him for the day while Vicky worked from home (as is often the case).

About 3pm I get a call from Vicky saying she had talked to my mum and he said that Benjamin wasn't standing up or crawling, which if you know him these days is pretty unusual, and she thought there was something wrong with his leg.

So later on, I come home from work and see Benjamin, and he wont stand on his left leg, and only crawls on his left knee, holding his left foot in the air. The doctors would have been shut by then, as it was about ten to seven. So I call NHS Direct, and after waiting quite a while I get though to a call operator who I try to exaplin the problem to, and he takes notes and asks loads of questions, then says a nurse will call me back within half an hour. So we wait about 10 mins and she call and I exaplin the whole thing to her and she says ok well I think you should take him to A&E.

All this time Vicky is saying, I'm sure its just a sprain don't be a hypochondriact.

So we take him off down the hostpital, and wait and wait, and then we see a doctor. We explain what's happened, and what we think it might be, his knee, so he has a prod and a wiggle and a feel of his leg, and he sends us off to x-ray.

So he gets his lower thigh, knee and upper shin x-rayed (and they were very friendly and nice in there to him). Then we come back (and wait, etc.) and the doctor says, well I can't see anything, kinda implying that he is fine and says show me his walking, which of course Benjamin totally fails to do, not putting any weight on his leg. So the doctor tells us to just take him home, and come back for an A&E review appointment on monday.

So all weekend he's not moving much, and all this time, he doesn't seem very upset by the whole leg thing. I mean he's teething at the same time so he's crying sometimes, but it doesn't seem to be anything to do with his leg.

So monday morning we go to the review appointment, and a different doctor, feels his leg, and can't seem to find anything. Then Vicky pipes up with 'Oh, I think it's his ankle, not his knee' (not having mentioned that to me before.. *shrug*). So anyways, he says, well I don't really want to give him another X-ray unless we have to, extra radiation dose and all, so we'll put his leg in a cast and see how he is on friday. So we go and get his leg set in a cast and go home.

Friday we go to the doctor again, he says go get the cast taken off, and so we do, which takes ages because there is a big queue. And Benjamin really doesn't like the electric plaster saw, the nurse/plasterer says that kids ofetn don't because they have sensitive skin and the vibration upsets them. And I was scared by this thing, I mean, you think, 'what happens if it goes past the plaster', but the (very friendly and nice) nurse shows us without asking that, its ok and puts it over the palm of her hand and shows that its ok on skin and it wont cut him. So buzz, buzz, whir, and after a bit of pulling and extra buzzing off comes the plaster (which we have obviously kept for posterity).

We take him back to the doctor, and Benjamin still isn't standing or even moving his left ankle very well, so we get send off to x-ray for a picture of his lower shin, ankle and foot, (and the nurse was very nice to him again :-> ). And then we take this back to the doctor.

So the doctor takes one look at it then shows us, and true enough there is fairly reasonable break in his tibia (shin bone), just above the ankle. No hairline job either, but not quite all the way through. So back off to plaster again, and they put on a thinner plaster again so its easier to get off next time.

So we're going back on the 16th to get this plaster off and see how he has recovered.

Posted by nickh at December 4, 2004 02:50 PM