Femur Fracture Yesterday

We have been enjoying how well Molly has been doing, but yesterday she fell and broke her femur. She was in the house after the hot tub and slipped on a patch of water and shrieked in pain. I knew right away it was not good by the cry. We tried to figure out where she was hurting and I splinted her tibia (obviously now I know the wrong bone). The Urgent Care facility was open, so we went for an x-ray since it was clear this was a very painful fracture. They told us there was an old femur fracture, but he didn't see anything new... I hate it when I take a doctor's word over my own instincts - just because they are a doctor does not mean then know OI... we headed home with the tibia still splinted... after being home a few minutes Jim and I talked about the femur fracture on the film and both concluded that we would have known if she fractured her femur a month ago and that this must be the new fracture (so obvious in hindsight). I used a Sam Splint (emergency splint) over the tibia splint to go all the way up to her bottom and she seemed a bit more comfortable after that.

Our friend Dr. Mary, that is and ER doctor with 2 OI kids of her own, spent the night with us last night and helped me to make a new splint that goes from her toes up to her rib cage to isolate the knee and the hip. She does not like that she cannot move at all on her own, but seems to be much more comfortable. I am so glad we finally figured out the real source of Molly's pain and that she was able to get a fairly good night's sleep thanks to her new splint (and with the help of pain medication).

There was some good news. Her tibia that we just rerodded in September looks great. She used to have a non-union at the mid shaft, but that looks to have healed up amazingly well. It looks better than it has in over a year :). We will be emailing Dr. Esposito to see what he thinks about this latest fracture and how long we will have to immobilize her and how long before she can be back up on her feet. I am guessing 4-6 weeks, but we will have to wait and see.

In other Molly news...

Molly has changed a lot in the past few months and become a true 4 year old :). She has starting talking more like a kid and less like a mini-adult, which is great. I think this is thanks to her preschool and having the opportunity to have more consistent play dates with her classmates. One of the things that we are working on is getting Molly to participate in group activities at school, but not be too passive. Her teacher pointed out that when another child asks for a toy she is playing with she immediately gives it to them. She pointed out that if that trend continues she is at risk for being bullied in elementary school - something we had not thought about at all. So, we are working on her asserting her own wants, while still being a "team player" and participating in small group play. Figuring out these social rules is very complicated since there are so many nuances to the right way vs. wrong way.

Molly's imagination continues to be her biggest strength. She is constantly coming up with new things to do, build, play etc. and Ms. Lynn (her teacher) has done a wonderful job of incorporating those new interests into the classroom. Molly became interested in playing Dr. with her stuffed animals, so now there is a Vet Center at school with lots of beanie babies and doctor equipment. A few weeks later Molly asked if she and I could build a rocket, so we put together a VERY rudimentary rocket for her stuffed animals to ride in. She brought it to school to show the class and then Ms. Lynn began a habitat building center with paper and cardboard for the kids to build rockets, homes etc. for the beanie babies.

Molly has just started putting her face in the water and is now swimming around the hot tub like a fish! She puts on her goggles and begins swimming around the tub only coming up long enough to catch her breath! We will now be out of the hot tub for the next month or so, but I have a video of her from earlier this week...

Click Here for a video of Molly "swimming" in the hot tub

Click Here for a link to new Photos