Brennan takes ANOTHER trip to the Instacare

There's just something wrong about the nurse at the Instacare recognizing you when you walk in...

Today I was gone most of the day at a baby shower for a friend in the ward, and then I went with the youth on a Temple trip to do baptisms. Michael was at home with the kids. I got home and knew right away that something wasn't right.

Michael had asked the boys to run upstairs for naptime around 2:30. So, of course they raced up the stairs and Cade got hit in the head with the safety gate, courtesy of Brennan. While Michael was consoling Cade, Brennan continued up the stairs, slipped, and Michael caught him by the foot hoping to prevent a bad fall.

Brennan cried that his foot hurt and took quite a while to calm down and wouldn't walk on it. Eventually, with the help of Tylenol and Daddy comforting him, Brennan fell asleep and took a nice nap. That's when I got home, just before 4.

I heard the story and then went in to check on Brennan and he was lying in his crib just waking up and semi crying. He said his foot had a bad owie. It didn't really look swollen at all, but there was a question of maybe some swelling. I had him wiggle his toes and he could do that, and I asked him to try to take a step so I gently put him on the floor and he started screaming.

So, I took him to the Instacare to get him checked out (Michael offered to come too, but taking three kids to the Instacare is not a pleasant experience, so he stayed with Cade and EmmaRay). The mere mention of "Let's go to the doctor to get your owie all better" and Brennan was freaking out. Don't forget, we were just there on the 12th of February and again on the 22nd to get staples in and out of his head.

He asked me to take his picture before we went in-- so here are the "at the doctor" pictures.

Pointing to his owie.

We checked in at 5... waited, waited some more.... watched about 8 other kids get taken back, most of which arrived after us, waited some more... finally at 5:50 I went to the front and said "How much longer do you think it's going to be?" and the receptionist said "Are you still out here?! That's been too long hasn't it!" She went and checked, came back and said "You're next"

Brennan did super waiting forever in the waiting room, except twice when his foot got bumped a little and he would cry and cuddle up in my arms. But as soon as we walked through the doors to the treatment area he was pretty hysterical. Poor little traumatized kid.

They gave him some Motrin to try to calm him down as we were waiting for the xrays. He screamed through the xrays with me holding him down on the table. He calmed down while we were waiting for the doctor to come in and just kept asking me if we could go home now. Actually after they gave him the Motrin he said to me "The medicine made my foot all better. Let's go home."

The doctor came in and said that she didn't see an obvious fracture in the foot, but there was a questionable spot in the lower leg. I guess a lot of the time toddler fractures don't show up on xrays because the bones are so porous anyway. Getting the splint on his foot required me holding him down and trying to comfort him, one nurse holding his leg in the right position, and another nurse placing the splint (which they did NOT do the back splint kind like Cade's that caused so many problems last fall... if they had started to do that I would have protested!)

So, he is in a splint and can't put any weight on his foot until we go and get checked out by a pediatric orthopedic doctor who will decide whether to hard cast it or keep it in the splint. As soon as the splint was on Brennan was crying/screaming "Take it off Mommy! Take it off! I don't like my boot! Take it off RIGHT NOW! It hurts me!" That just about made me cry.

The nurse offered him a popsicle and a sticker and Brennan's answer was a very loud and mad/hurt "NO!" After which he threw a screaming fit all the way home in the car crying over and over "I don't want to go home Mommy! Don't go home! I want to go back to that doctor and get a sticker." Pretty much hysterical.

The nurse told me "good luck" on my way out of the Instacare with a screaming Brennan wrapped around my neck, and I told her "No offense, but I don't want to see you again anytime soon." She said "No kidding! At least not here!" I remembered tonight that she was also the nurse when Cade had his whole horrible infected pressure sore thing last september. What are the chances.

Brennan happied up at home, especially when he saw the paper and markers that Grandma Thornbrue brought over for him (THANKS MOM! YOU'RE THE BEST!), and he fell asleep no problem tonight, so that's a good sign.

The splint:

Michael is at the store right now buying Children's Motrin because it's better for bone pain than tylenol. He keeps wondering if it would have been better if he hadn't reached out and grabbed Brennan's foot- maybe he would have caught Brennan if he had fallen, or maybe Brennan wasn't going to fall at all. I've been telling him that he did the best he could and that it was just an accident. But like all bad things that happen, they just keep replaying and replaying in your mind and you wonder if you just would have done things a little differently how it might have turned out.

So, let the fun begin again. Hopefully Brennan will recover quickly and can return to his normal self.... gee, we just got him pretty well potty trained this week too. :)

Oh, and these last two pictures are because Cade wanted to show everyone his toothbrush, so of course Brennan did too.