The Jensen Family's Little Viking Tales: The Broken Leg and Easter Weekend

The girls had their dance class photos taken on Friday, April 14. That evening, we went to David and Karin's. Everyone was having a great time playing until Karin noticed Maddie and Brooke on the trampoline. Maddie caught a big bounce from Brooke and landed funny and was really crying hard. Karin brought her inside and I just figured she was overtired from not having a nap that day, but I guess that wasn't the case. David couldn't tell if her leg was broken, but we gave her some ibuprofen and she fell asleep. We took her home eventually and she cried getting into the car. She wouldn't try to stand up or anything. We got her into her own bed and figured we'd just see how she was when she woke up the next day.

It was Easter weekend, and we had planned to go to the park for the community Easter egg hunt Saturday morning. She would not stand up to gather eggs. I had to carry her and set her down in the grass so she could pick up a few eggs. A few hours later, there was an egg hunt at the pool. We thought we would let her get in the water and see if that helped to get her to move a bit. It didn't. She got in the pool, but just sat on the step the whole time. One of the people in charge felt bad she didn't get more than one or two eggs, so she gave me a bag of treats for her. She ended up with a better loot than most of the kids! She didn't want to stay in the pool, so I got her out of the water and she just sat on the side of the pool eating treats and watching the older kids do their egg hunt. She had no desire to try to stand or put any weight on her leg, so we decided to have David put in an order for an x-ray. I guess the x-ray table was scary for her because she cried all through the x-rays. When that was done, she was fine again. I told her she might have a broken leg and would need a cast on it. She did not like that idea at first, but I reminded her that her cousin, Coleman, had a cast on his arm recently and it made his arm better, so she started to think that might be ok.

With it being a weekend, we didn't hear right away from the radiologist. We just kept going about our Easter activities not knowing if her leg was broken or not. We gave her ibuprofen and as long as she could be carried around, she was fine. In fact, she even started crawling around and dragging her leg so she wouldn't have to wait to be carried. She went to nursery at church on Sunday and was in pretty good spirits. Mom, the Haws, and Shropshires came to town and we all had Easter dinner together at the Watkins' house in Mayfield. David finally got the x-ray image sent to him and he couldn't see a break, but late that night he got a message from the radiologist saying that there was actually a small break right below the knee. It was a Torus fracture on her tibia and would need to be casted. Bummer!

She found her treats from the Easter Bunny!

The cousins were good about helping Maddie get around.

Nice to have the family together. If we could just get Linda and Larry to move West!

Getting around before the cast is on.

Monday afternoon, we finally got the cast put on. David was able to do it in his office and Maddie was happy about her pretty pink cast. She didn't try to walk on it for a day or two, but eventually got tired of crawling and dragging her leg around, so she tried walking and realized she could! I asked David if that was a problem and he said he hoped not! Anyway, I guess he talked to an orthopaedic doc who said it was ok. It was tough keeping her down! She eventually started doing most of the things she did before the break... riding her bike, swinging, dancing, jumping on the trampoline, etc. The most difficult thing was bathing her. She didn't like keeping a plastic bag over it to take a bath, so this girl who had been enjoying a bath or two each day went without baths for a while. I think that was her least favorite part of the whole thing.

She didn't love being in the stroller.

Dancing with Brooke while watching TV

Almost six weeks later, we decided it was time for the cast to come off. David was working in the ER on a Thursday night, so we went to see him while he had use of the cast removal saw. Turns out neither he nor the nurse assisting had ever used one, so that was a fun learning experience for them! Anyway, the cast came off, but Maddie was not too happy. She wouldn't walk on the leg. We hoped we hadn't done it too soon! It was late, so I took her home and gave her ibuprofen and she went to bed. The next morning she wouldn't walk on her leg. It took her a day or two, but she eventually started crawling again and then started limping around. For several weeks, maybe even a month, she was still walking on her tippy toes as she had done when the cast was on. But she seems to be fine now. Thank goodness! If anyone had to break their leg, I'm glad it was her at this time while she's still light enough to carry around! She was such a trooper, though. I'm really amazed with the way she handled it all. And it was so nice to have David here to take care of her. But let's hope we're done with casts in this family!