Life has been interesting for us over the past few months, with the past week the peak. I received a phone call Tuesday, April 27th that Phoenix woke from her nap at daycare crying. Angela, her daycare provider, could not get her to stop crying so she called me to let me know that something was wrong. Since I was at a doctor's appointment after work I told her to let me know how she was in 10 minutes. I then received a text that she had stopped crying, but was unable to walk. She tried to get her to walk but she just collapsed. Ten minutes after that text I received another that Phoenix was fine if she held her and that she still would not walk. So, after the last communication that Phoenix would not walk and all the other kids were playing in the water and Phoenix did not want to play in the water or walk I left my appointment. I of course tracked down the medical assistant to let her know that I was leaving.
I was so angry at myself. I had wasted nearly an hour to be seen by the doctor and ride my bike to daycare, while Phoenix waited for me. Of course on my quick ride down Lawrence Expressway I had all kinds of awful thoughts cross my mind as to what was wrong with her and why she couldn't walk. I also had to pray for my safety as I was riding as hard and fast as I could and traffic was picking up as rush hour was just starting.
When I arrived Phoenix was quietly watching the other kids play from Angela's lap. She did not want her left leg touched and cried when I tried to touch it. I rode her home in the Burley. I luckily ran into my neighbor and asked her if she could pick up Axel from after school care. I was able to get a hold of Keith on the way to Kaiser and told him he needed to head home and that Axel was next door at Rishaan's house.
Axel and Daddy managed to arrive at Kaiser at 7pm, We had already had xrays taken from the hip down to the ankle and were waiting for the results when they arrived. The doctor wanted to rule out any infection in her joints and of course any fractures. Within 5 minutes of their arrival the doctor came in and said, "so she has a spiral fracture of her tibia". I was shocked. Keith was relieved. We both thought this was the best case scenario as bones heal and any other causes of her inability to walk were not good. They splinted her and sent us home with an appointment to be seen by ortho and casted the next day. The splinted her leg straight as seen above. You can see that it was really easy for her to learn to stand with her leg straight. We quickly learned from Dr. Cappiello, an orthopedist who I have worked with for years, that they cast this fracture with the knee bent to prevent what you see in the picture above!
Phoenix was not excited about the cast. Axel was kind enough to pick out a pink sparkly cast for her.
I believe most of Pheeny's tears were from fear and not knowing what was happening to hear. She really was very brave and cooperative.
When we got home Annika came over to visit. This of course brought lots of smiles. Phoenix surprisingly slept really well that night.
On Thursday Phoenix learned to scoot on her butt around the play room and throughout the house. We ventured out for groceries and then to Axel's baseball game. It happened to be over 90 degrees that day so we stayed in the shade. Daddy and Axel were not too happy that we were not on the field. Phoenix was initially upset, but quickly changed her mind when 3 other moms and their kids joined us in the shade.
Phoenix had fun playing peek a boo with Easton.
On Friday, Daddy stayed home from work to watch Phoenix while I took off for a conference. I mention this for two reasons. One, Keith told me that Phoenix learned to pull herself up to standing and onto the couch and back down while I was away. Which is great but scary since we don't want her to hurt herself. I also mention this because ironically Friday was one month after we found out that the baby I was carrying had past. On April 1st we excitedly went to our perinatology ultrasound and amniocentesis appointment in hopes to find the gender and the health of the baby only to discover the baby had past. On May 1st, this past Friday, while I was at a very expensive conference I finally received the two phone calls I had been waiting weeks for. I was a little worried about missing part of the lecture, but was happy to finally have answers. I was able to first speak with the doctor and later to our genetics counselor, Michelle. We learned that the baby was a girl and had triploidy. Michelle said that this is still considered a fluke of nature even though this was the second triploidy baby that we have had. This was actually the best possible news for us because if the autopsy and genetic work up did not reveal anything wrong with the baby then they would have had to do a work up on my health. Although Keith and I are sad, we are also very hopeful that one day we will be able to have another healthy child like the two beautiful children that we already have. We are also okay if this doesn't happen.
On Saturday on the way home from the conference Keith's 20 year old Saturn's transmission finally decided to blow. My Knight in shinning armor quickly came to the rescue. He drove the two kids to me and then let me drive home, while he stayed and took care of the car. He was able to drive it to the repair shop in first gear! I am glad that he didn't have to wait the expected two hours for the tow truck to arrive. After he got home we headed to the park as we always do. We just had to be a little more creative. The kids played catch while sitting.
They also played seated kick ball. Axel has been extremely charming and understanding. He is an amazing big brother. He is always great about taking care of and playing with Phoenix when she needs attention. After seated kick ball we played on the play structure. I took Phoenix up and down the slide and she happily swung from the bar just over the slide. We feel so very blessed for our health and the time we have together.
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