William's Leg

On October 4 William and Tyson were playing with William's cousin and somehow William's leg got squashed. And by squashed I mean broken. I was sitting right there watching and I couldn't tell you exactly what happened. In fact, we heard three loud pops that we thought maybe came from his knee since that's what he was holding while screaming in pain. Turns out his leg was broken: a spiral tibia fracture. 

See? Pretty bad. Luckily they didn't have to set it since there wasn't a lot of movement. 

He was so unhappy. We had tried to give him some medicine before we left the house but he wouldn't take anything. And he was shaking and crying. They finally gave him a shot of morphine and that really helped. He even fell asleep for a little bit. They put him in a splint and told us to go to an orthopedist in a week after most of the swelling had gone down. We got William into a guy here in Orem the following Thursday and had the cast put on. William cried the entire time we were there. To be fair, we had to remove the splint to do x-rays and then we moved him into the casting room. We tried to get him to pick a color for his cast but he said "NO!" to every suggestion. So we went with green.

See? Sad boy. He held my hand so tightly the whole time. It's been a little over a week since he's been in the cast. We had another appointment this last Thursday (his one-week mark) for more x-rays to confirm that the bones hadn't shifted. Luckily everything looked great which means no surgery. He'll be in the cast for three more weeks. After that we'll do another set of x-rays. If everything looks good he'll be put in a walking cast or boot for another two weeks. When all that is done he should be cast/boot free before Thanksgiving.

He's not supposed to put any pressure on his leg at all. We got a kid wheelchair so we can take him to church in it and to preschool. I'm still waiting to hear from the transportation folks if they will take him to school in his chair or if I have to drive him. I know they pick up a kid from William's class who is in a wheelchair so they have the capabilities. We'll see what they say. It was fall break the past few days so no one was there to answer the phones.

William has learned how to scoot around on his bum so he can still get around in the house. He likes to sit in his wheelchair sometimes just to watch a movie.

My dad bought us a Radio Flyer wagon and shipped it to us. I took William on a walk today in it. He loved it! We're going to take him trick-or-treating in it, too. 

William is a heavy kid, the cast makes it worse, and I'm not really supposed to be lifting heavy things these days, ya know? There are some times when I just can't do it at all. We've been blessed that William is a naturally happy kid so once the swelling and pain went down he perked right back up. It was really hard for a while because he didn't want to do ANYTHING except lay in his bed and watch movies. At least now I can get him to agree to go outside or in the car with me. His eating is still a bit iffy sometimes. But I sure love him and I'm glad we can entertain him while he's not allowed to run around.