Here is the (very detailed) account of how our poor little Nolan man broke his foot.
On Wednesday night (October 2nd) Nolan climbed up on one of the kitchen chairs and was standing on the seat, facing the back of the chair and holding onto it. This is something that he does all the time... climbs up then climbs down. He is usually not up there for long and he's a very good climber. All of a sudden I heard the chair fall and looked to see that it had tipped over, making Nolan fall face forward to the floor. I got to him as soon as it happened and he wasn't trapped or immediately looked hurt, just crying a lot. It took him a really long time to stop crying (very unlike him) and I was holding him the whole time. When he had calmed down I set him on the floor and his legs began to tremble and he started crying again and wanted to be held. I could tell that he didn't want to put pressure on his legs so I moved around his legs, knees, ankles, but he didn't show any signs of pain. He was still fussy though and by this time it was late so I gave him Tylenol and put him to bed. I thought it was probably a sprain and he would be able to sleep it off.
He slept great and woke up happy the next morning. However when he wanted to get down we out him down and the same thing happened: legs trembling and him crying. We again moved around his legs and began to see that the right foot looked a little swollen. When Paul pushed against the bottom of his right foot he started crying. We knew it had to be something to do with his foot. He started crawling and pulling himself up with one foot then standing on one foot holding onto things.
I took him to our doctor's office that morning. Our regular doctor was not there so we saw his PA. She also diagnosed it was something with his foot and guessed a fracture. They put him in a splint and sent us to get an x-Ray. We went to the hospital and got the x-Ray and he was very good and held very still (with a tech holding him down) and did not fuss or make a peep during the x-ray. Both kids were very well behaved the whole day... Caitlin took her job very seriously to help Nolan be brave and sing him songs and get him stickers. Nolan was his happy self.. flirting with all the nurses and saying hi and just crawling around playing wherever he could.
The x-rays came back as a buckle (aka green stick) fracture on the first metatarsal, supposedly the best kind of fracture to have that will heal well and is not close to the growth plate. We were instructed to come back Monday for a cast after the swelling had gone down.
Monday came and we took off the splint in the morning to inspect the swelling and noticed a big red blister on the back of his heel. This had probably come from the type of splint he had and his heel rubbing against the back. I took him into the doctor and they said with a blister they could not put a cast over it because it could turn into an ulcer under the conditions in the cast. They re-fashioned the splint so his heel was exposed and instructed me to wait and see if it went away. In the new splint Nolan was able to walk a little and still never showed signs of complaint and the only pain was when I had to put medicine on his blister. He is such a trooper!
Unfortunately the blister did not heal by Friday. At this point it had been over a week since the break and I was anxious to get him in a more permanent solution to get him healing! They said my options were to wait for the blister to go away and then cast or to get him a boot. That way I could take the boot on and off to monitor his blister. They called an orthopedic specialist and were able to find the smaller boot they make that would fit him. (I believe the boot is suited for 18 months-2 year olds so it's a good thing he's a big boy) I took him to the orthopedic office and they put the boot on him and showed me how help his blister.
So now he's in the boot until at least 4 weeks after the break. He is able to walk in it and so far has continued to be a great sport. There has been some discomfort and rubbing and sometimes I'll see him try to take it off or look frustrated with it but for the most part he does well. He is supposed to wear it 24/7 minus a couple times a day when I can take it off to check his blister and give him a quick bath. The saddest is seeing him sleep in that huge thing, although while he's sleeping is the only time i feel like he is truly being able to heal because he's so active the rest of the time. He hasn't been sleeping as well as before so I'm hoping that is due to the boot also.
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