The first fracture

God is good.

Lately I've been saying that as a jubilant praise in response to the amazing power of the Lord.  Today I'm using it as a reminder to myself that no matter what happens, it's still true.

Last night Wyatt broke his right femur (and possibly his left - it's difficult to tell on the x-rays).  We took him to the emergency room and he got a harness put on this morning, but he's in a lot of pain.  Tylenol helps some, but not a lot.  We're going to be in the hospital for the rest of today and maybe tonight.  We're praying that the bones can heal quickly and the pain would subside.  I have to run, but I'll keep you updated when I can.

Update: Here are the details as they currently stand.


Last night around 8 pm, Wyatt started crying.  This didn't really sound like a normal cry, but we exhausted all the normal infant options: was he gassy?  No, he didn't seem to be gassy.  Did he need to be changed?  Oh my yes, but putting him in a clean diaper only exacerbated the crying.  Was he hungry?  Yes!  Feeding him stopped the crying. 

But much to our chagrin, that was only a lull in the storm.  Immediately after he was done eating, he started screaming again.  And that's when Julia noticed Wolf was favoring his right leg and seemed to be bothered whenever someone moved or put pressure on that leg.  Afraid that he had broken something, we decided to take him to ER.

That was not a fun time.  They took x-rays, which required me to stretch his legs out, and I can only imagine how painful that was for him.  We waited for several different doctors before an orthopedist finally informed us that his right femur was indeed broken right at the hip, and they would need to put him in a cast or a harness.  Meanwhile, they wouldn't give Wyatt any pain killers because they needed to rule out an infection as a cause for the pain.  By the time they got us out of the ER and moved us to a new room, Julia and I needed pain killers for our headaches.  We didn't get any either.

Finally they gave poor Wolf some Tylenol, and that seemed to calm him down enough so he could sleep.  In the morning, the pediatric orthopedic surgeon came in and put him in a harness.  The harness is this velcro strappy thing that goes over the shoulders and around the chest, which is all attached to stirrups for his feet to keep his legs in a stable position.  He'd look pretty tough if we could attach grenades to it or something.  Judging by the screaming that occurred while the harness was being fitted, Wolf did not seem to realize the baby-Rambo potential.  The worst part was that the doctor let us keep the packaging it came in, presumably so we could figure out how it was supposed to go back on if we ever have to take it off.  The picture on the package shows the happiest baby you've ever seen lying there in this harness.  If THAT baby had a broken femur when the picture was taken, I wanted Wyatt to get whatever drugs he got.  Needless to say, the picture completely annoyed me.

The doctor told us this morning that the fracture(s) lead him to think that this is probably OI.  He informed us that the shape of Wolf's femurs puts additional stress on the hip area, which is what led to the break.  Julia and I are unaware of anything that might have caused this.  This isn't a final diagnosis yet, but the doctor has a pretty solid opinion about it.  We are still waiting to meet with him again about how Wolf is responding to the harness and where we go from here to prevent this from recurring.

You remember when we talked about highs and lows in our welcome post?  I'll give you three guesses to figure out which category this episode belongs in.  Still, if there's anything positive to be gained it's that hopefully we're much closer to a firm diagnosis, and, consequently, a plan for treatment.  I am also learning a tough, but valuable lesson - God's work isn't complete when I think it is.  Sometimes He doesn't do these things all at once, and we need to continue to be faithful in prayer, just as He is faithful to listen.  I am so thankful that Wyatt is here with us, but I am going to be praying extra hard that the healing work would be finished.

Thanks again for all your prayers.  We need them today.