Expensive Souvenier

We had a fantastic vacation in Jackson Hole, WY and Yellowstone National Park. While in Yellowstone we hiked and hiked and had such a great time on Thursday. Friday morning I was getting Cadence dressed and he said he had a "bad owie" on his foot. I took off his pajamas and found a very swollen left ankle. He could wiggle his toes and he never cried about it so we figured it was a sprain and decided to carry him/push him in a stroller all day. We put an ice pack on it and propped it up in the car and then headed out to check out the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone and Mammoth Hot Springs. We stopped at several stores throughout the day looking for children's tylenol, but no one had any.

After his nap in the car that afternoon Cade woke up pale and crying. We took another look at his ankle and it had about doubled in size with swelling almost to his knee. We finally found some chewable tylenol at a little store (the last box!). We decided to take him to the nearest medical clinic to get checked out, just in case it was worse than a sprain.

We got the the Mammoth clinic at 4:55pm-- they closed at 5. Luckily they agreed to see Cadence. Here are the x-rays.

Two views of the left foot and ankle.
Comparing the healthy right foot to the not-so-healthy left foot.

Sure enough, Cadence has a broken leg!! He ran and ran and played "1, 2, 3 Whee" with Grandma and Grandpa, hiked and played around the campsite all day and only said anything about his feet being tired after a 3 mile hike that we did in 45 minutes because we were running from mosquitos... and sometime during all of that he just pounded his little leg bone until it broke a little bit. It's not a bad break, just a slight fracture on the end of the tibia (I think that's the small one, but maybe I'm remembering backwards). The Dr debated putting on a hard cast, but decided to make it a soft removable one so we could readjust it as the swelling goes down. We kept the whole office at work until 6:30.... so glad we got Cadence taken care of!

This is only about an hour after he got his cast on. Thank goodness for Tylenol!! Cade got carried or pushed in the stroller for the rest of the trip and was such a good boy! The Dr and nurses were so impressed that he didn't cry while getting xrays or when the Dr was putting the cast on. Such a brave little guy! The only time he cried was when his foot went to sleep (Saturday afternoon and during Sacrament meeting yesterday)-- the waking up process is so painful!

Last night and this morning he had some trouble-- screaming and writhing in pain as he is feeling the healing process and not liking having his "bad owie" Thank goodness for a blessing from Daddy and more tylenol...

He should only have to wear the cast for 2-3 weeks and then just take it slow after that. But until then, absolutely no walking. It's a workout for me, let me tell you! I have a new appreciation for healthy walkers and for parents of children in wheelchairs. It's a lot of work!

So, those xray pictures are our $301.00 souvenier... hopefully the insurance will reimburse us soon :)