Tuesday, March 8, 2011

An injury, a scare, school and surgery...

We have been pretty busy around here! Two and a half weeks ago Ella hurt her foot. Hunter set up his own little obstacle course in the living room and of course Ella couldn't resist doing what big brother does. Hunter was running and jumping over their little chair/couches, so Ella would run up to it, stop, and then try to kind of leap over it. They've done it a million times. So Ella leaps over and falls onto her left foot and starts bawling. (Let me quickly remind you that this child has the highest pain tolerance....so high that it is down right scary.) I figure she most have rolled her ankle a bit. Well, four hours later she is still saying it hurts and when I try to have her stand up she crumples to the ground crying and screaming. So, hubby comes home from work to stay with the boy and off Ella and I go to the ER.


The doctor that we see at the ER tries to convince me that Ella is faking her injury, because it is not swollen or bruised and when she is sitting it doesn't seem like she is in any pain at all. Despite my attempts to explain Ella's freaky pain tolerance issues and informing her that if Ella was fine her little room would be destroyed and Ella would be roaming the halls, the doctor still felt like everything was fine. I convinced them to at least do an X-ray. The doctor asks Ella where it hurts and she points to her big toe, so an X-ray is performed on the top of Ella's foot. Not her ankle, just the top of her foot, because that is where my 4 year old pointed. OK. So that came back fine and the doctor says to me "don't worry, parent's bring their kids into the ER all the time because they won't do stuff for them at home." As if Ella would play a game for 4 hours, a game mind you that has no reward. Fine. We go home. The next day Ella does not walk AT ALL. She literally crawls around the house the entire day. The day after that Ella crawls around until about 6pm then takes a few steps, limping and saying owie. Then on Thursday she is walking pretty well, with a noticeable limp, but walking, (Thursday ended up being a snow day so she didn't go to school.)

The following Tuesday I go to pick Ella up from school and the teachers informed me that Ella had been limping and tripping and falling all day. I went back and talked to the PT and she and I both felt that Ella's foot should be checked out again. Her foot was a little puffy. So Wednesday I take Ella into her pediatricians office. They order STAT X-rays of her tib/fib, ankle and foot. Five hours later the doctor calls me. She asks me how Ella's foot is and I tell her she is still limping and tripping. She says that the X-rays all look good but she consulted with some of the other pediatricians in the practice and they all think that Ella should go have some blood work done. Um, what? She says to rule stuff out. I say Cancer? She says "yes, Leukemia." Insert nausea and sobbing. Then she says "can you get her to the lab like now?" I get Ella to the lab rather quickly and look at the script the doctor sent over and it says STAT STAT STAT on it, which just added to my anxiety. We left the lab at 3:30 and I just knew that we wouldn't hear anything back that night, and therefore knew that I would not be sleeping at all. Surprise surprise the phone rings at 6:30, it's the doctor's office. I'm thinking this canNOT be good. The nurse says that 2 of Ella's tests came back and her numbers could not be more NORMAL!!! I cannot tell you how fabulous that felt. Phew. We still didn't know what was going on with her foot but I didn't really care because she didn't have cancer!! We decide to try wrapping Ella's ankle for a while and see if that helps, and it does, so Ella's PT called downtown and looks like we are getting more orthodics next week so that we avoid another injury.

Last Thursday was our big meeting with the school to discuss Ella's placement for next year. The school had told me that Ella could not stay in preschool next year, that because she would be 5 before Sept 1st (her b-day is Aug 30th) she would not be able to go back into her integrated preschool program and would instead have to move on to Kindergarten. Well, that is most definitely not what I wanted for Ella. I have so many reasons why I wanted her to stay in preschool, but to me it was just so logical that a child her size, with her birthday, and with her delays that she should not move on to Kindergarten. Anyhow, so we've been gearing up for this big battle with the school district and it was the day of the big meeting and again I was so nervous. We get to the meeting and there are 12 people there, 8 from the school, Chris my mom and I and Ella's private speech therapist. About two minutes in they inform me that they got special authorization from the state to keep Ella in the integrated preschool next year. SO RELIEVED!!! Phew! She will need to change teachers because they think she needs some change (she's been in the same class for 2 years) and I think I'm okay with that. I absolutely LOVE her teachers and paraeducator that she has now, they really push her but also love her, but I guess I see their point and I am okay with change (sort of.)

Now we move onto surgery. We are scheduled to check in for eye surgery this Thursday, March 10th, at 7am. She is having both of her eyes operated on to correct her crossing. I am nervous of course but know that she really needs it because her eyes are bad!

Speaking of March 10th, my baby boy turns 7 that day. I cannot believe my little guy will be 7, just does not seem possible. We had his birthday party this past Saturday at the bowling ally, he had 15 kids and his Mimi and Nana there, he sure had a great time!!! I have tons of pics from that that I will post later!!! For now I will just leave you with these from right before the party!
Poor squinty light sensitive kids : )

10 comments:

Becca said...

Wow, so glad to see an update!! I can only imagine how frightened you were with the concern over Ella's pain...ugh. Is her foot totally better now?

I thought they would automatically give you the option to keep Ella in preschool another year...hmmmm. I think they allow that here, but am not positive. What a relief that they all came to an agreeable decision!

Happy almost birthday to Hunter, and good luck to Ella with her surgery!! It'll go great. :-)

Sweet Pea's Mommy said...

Oh my! I couldn't breath until I read about the call saying test results were totally normal! Yippee!!!!

Sorry it's been so busy for you recently, but VERY glad that it's all relatively minor in the grand scheme of things. HUGS!

Mommy to those Special Ks said...

Whew! I couldn't breathe either! SO glad all her test results were normal! SO is her ankle all better now?! She must have twisted it badly or something. And boo to that dumb ER doc!

Sounds like Ella is in a great school who has her best interest at heart! I hope she gets a great team of teachers next year that you love as much as the ones she has this year! :) Glad the meeting went well!

Happy Birthday to Hunter!!!

Runningmama said...

So glad the test results were normal coming from this mama who knows all about waiting for that phone call...and I am so glad it turned out differently for Ella than it did for Emily especially since she is older and would have known what was going on more than Emily does. Also so glad that they decided to keep her where she is for school :-)

kecia said...

wow girl you have been busy!!! SO glad it all turned out good in the end...with everything!

Jennie said...

Kacey, that's a lot to process from one post! Wow. SOOOO glad that the big L test was negative. How scary! And I'm THRILLED for all of you that Ella can get another year in preschool.

Lori said...

Happy Birthday, Hunter!! Love the squinty light-sensitive kids =) Reminds me of my son -- seriously, if you want to torture him, make him take a picture outside in the bright sunlight - ha!

I hope Ella's surgery went well today.

I am so glad that Ella's bloodwork came back normal. That is a phone call I never want to have to wait for.
How is her foot now? Poor thing!

Also - so glad that Ella is able to stay in pre-school! When I read your first post about her school placement, I really couldn't believe that they were pushing her through.

Kristen said...

Oh my goodness Kacey! Are there words that can describe the emotions and thoughts that you must have experienced before her blood work came back normal? Wow! So glad the nightmare did not burst into reality.

McKinley {Haolepinos} said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Simply, Sarah said...

I am so HAPPY and relieved for you about the no cancer!!!! Please, do a happy dance! :)
That's the kind of ending I like on a scary story like that.
Yay Ella!