Leg Update

We were able to get in to see an orthopedist at Children's Orthopaedics of Atlanta this afternoon, which was great. After looking at the x-rays, the doctor informed us that Elsa has a spiral fracture rather than an oblique fracture, as we were told in the ER, meaning that the fracture actually probably starts where my red circles are in the previous post and then wraps around the bone and ends somewhere lower. Thank God her leg did not twist even more coming down the slide or the break could have been much, much worse. Because the break is of this nature, though, her entire leg must remain in a cast for three weeks. At that point they will remove the cast, take another x-ray, and determine how to proceed, but the doctor said it is likely that she will then be placed in a shorter cast (below her knee), and that one will be a walking cast, at least allowing her to be more mobile. She might be in this short cast for two weeks. He said we did not really need to prevent her from attempting to move around in her current cast, and that she would lay off of the pressure if it hurt. But we also should not encourage her to walk, as her leg should really have the least amount of pressure applied to it as possible during these next three weeks. He said crawling would be completely fine since any pressure would be applied to the femur rather than her lower-leg bones, but we will see if she can even figure out how to accomplish that feat.

I said before that I did not think a full-on cast could be any worse than the splint, and I was right. But what I did not realize is how much better it would actually be. I don't feel like I need to worry about protecting her leg nearly as much now that it is completely enclosed in this hard cast, which is nice. I just see it, however, quickly becoming a weapon. She has already taken to hitting it against the wall while on the changing table and has accidentally whacked both the rocking chair and my knee.

Elsa put up a bit of a fight while two technicians worked to put on the new cast, but some singing and a cherry sucker helped to distract her to some extent. Once in the car, though, she was quite excited to realize that her leg was now purple ("ah-pol"... sounds pretty similar to when she says "apple"). She seems to have an affinity for all things purple lately. She always eyes the purple scarf in music class, and actually stole it from the music teacher last week. Overall, she remains a trooper and seems to be dealing with all of this very well... perhaps even better than her mama.