Our Little Boy Broke (18 months, 10 days old)

It has been an eventful couple of days.  Graham had his first visit to Urgent Care, his first broken bone, and his first cast, and in true Graham style, he is taking it all in stride with a smile on his face. 
On Sunday, July 3rd, we were getting ready to go for a family walk, so the front door was open.  Graham went running towards the open door and I was worried that he would make it out to the street so I yelled for Nick to catch him.  Nick went running after Graham and slipped.  Nick basically fell on top of Graham.  Nick was able to break his fall with his wrist, but Graham’s head and body got squashed between the concrete and Nick’s ribcage.    
There was lots of crying and Nick said it was a horrible fall, but we both thought that the extent of the accident was Graham’s banged up face.  However, after he had been crying for 20 minutes straight with nothing soothing him (bath, pacifier, stories, songs) we decided to head to Urgent Care.  When we were getting him dressed to go, Nick noticed that Graham couldn’t walk or stand and was barely moving his right leg.  Once we figured out to avoid disturbing Graham’s leg, he stopped crying, but we were now really worried about his leg. 
While we were waiting to be seen at Urgent Care, I took some pictures of Graham’s war wounds.  He had scrapes around his eye and cheek and had cut the inside of his mouth:

We had a LONG 2.5 hour wait, and Graham kept himself busy by pulling all of his boogie wipes out of their container:

Graham was bummed but still holding it together when we finally got into an exam room:

but when the doctor wiggled his teeth to make sure none of them were loose, he lost it:

His teeth were all fine and the doctor confirmed that Graham did not have any signs of neurological damage!  Next, the doctor examined Graham's leg.  Nick and I watched in awe, as the doctor pulled, twisted, pressed, and pushed Graham’s leg without so much as a whimper out of Graham.  It appeared that Graham was fine, but he still would not put weight on his right leg and cried when we stood him up to test it. 
The doctor ordered x-rays which were tough for Graham but he recovered quickly once they were done:

While we were waiting for the doctor to come back with the results, Graham took his first (and much needed) nap since the accident:

The doctor came back and told us that the x-ray came back clean and that sometimes kids are just scared and sore after an accident and that Graham would probably wake up from a nap and forget that his leg ever hurt.  The doctor said that he would have a radiologist review the x-rays but some baby Advil was probably all that Graham needed. 
We took Graham home and after a dose of Advil (the first ever of his life) he was feeling pretty good:

The wounds on his face even seemed to be healing:

He ate well that night and played a fun game with Daddy where he wore the ‘blue’ colander (named for the blueberries it always contains for Graham to feast on for dessert) as a hat:

Graham woke up the next morning and was standing in his crib when we went to get him, but when we unzipped his sleep sack, we found that he was standing on his left foot and holding his right foot in the air. 
I called Urgent Care and said that I wanted a copy of the x-rays to send to our friend Juan (who is a radiologist) because I was concerned the doctor may have missed something in the x-ray.  Urgent Care explained that they didn’t have the ability to pass along a digital copy and since it was a holiday (4th of July) I would need to wait until the next morning to get a hard copy of the x-rays.  After some pressing on my end, they agreed to get a copy of the radiology report that was performed after we left Urgent Care.  A few minutes after I hung up, the doctor who saw Graham called me back and told me that the radiologist had found something in the x-ray but it was so minor he didn’t know if it was just a normal variant in Graham’s bone and since Graham had seemed fine during the exam, the doctor had concluded that it probably was just a variant in Graham’s bone structure.  However, upon hearing that Graham was still favoring his right leg, the doctor told me that the x-ray results no longer mattered and that Graham definitely had broken his leg (buckle fracture in the tibia just below the knee) so the doctor wanted us to help Graham keep all weight off his leg for the rest of the day and go to see an orthopedic surgeon first thing the next morning.  We spent the rest of the day (Happy 4th of July to us) keeping Graham entertained without letting him move (lots of walks and stories), gathering advice from our friends and family in the medical field, and researching online.  When we finally put Graham to bed, we got a surprise treat when we discovered that we had a prefect view of the fireworks show we had planned on going to before Graham's accident, from our deck.  Nick and I enjoyed the show until the neighborhood skunk chased us back into the house. 
All of that brings us to today.  We got an early appointment with the orthopedist and headed to his office right after breakfast.  Since we had stopped letting Graham put pressure on his leg, he seemed to be out of pain and he was even playing with his leg while waiting for the appointment:

Graham was both excited and nervous while waiting for the doctor to come see him:

The orthopedist examined the x-rays and agreed there was just the slightest fracture in Graham’s right leg:

If you look closely, the arrow points to the little horizontal line under Graham’s knee where the break occurred:

The doctor didn’t seem terribly concerned and hemmed and hawed a bit about what to do but said he would err on the side of caution and put Graham in a cast.  He said the break had not gone into the growth plate and Graham would make a full recovery.  He told us to expect Graham to crawl and walk in the cast and suggested baby Benadryl if Graham got itchy.  We told the doctor that we were scheduled to leave for Europe in two weeks, so he said that he would see Graham again the day before we left and take some x-rays to determine if our little guy would be going to Europe with a cast or a newly repaired leg.
Once the treatment plan was determined, the nurse came in to mold the cast (full leg cast up to mid thigh with a 10% angle at the knee and 90% angle at the ankle).  We picked green as the color and she went to work:

Graham got some stickers when it was all over and didn’t seem to even notice the cast when we loaded him into the stroller to head home:

At home, he got right to work, playing with his toys:

and practicing crawling:

He took a normal 3 hour nap and didn’t seem to have any trouble sleeping with the cast and when he woke up he was surprised to find his buddies Kenzie and Penelope had come over to visit him!  Kenzie kept patting Graham’s cast to make sure his leg was OK in there:

After dinner, he practiced crawling (much faster than we were expecting) and even took a few steps, but those seemed to bother him and he wasn’t quite sure how to get back down from the standing position when he needed a break. 
He ended the night with some more playing:

then a story and off to bed.  He tossed and turned a lot more to get comfortable, but never woke up and now he is peacefully sleeping. 

What a brave little boy!  He has had quite an adventure over the past few days and he may still have some rough days ahead with missed swim lessons and no outdoor play dates, but he seems just as cheerful as always. 
We are so proud of him, so happy that things have been going fairly well after such a bad accident, and more in love with him than ever. 
We have had an outpouring of well wishes and support from our friends and family.  In his short life, Graham has already captured the hearts of so many people.
Please continue to wish our boy a speedy and full recovery!