Hip (Hip Hooray! It's OK! ((we think))

Anybody with a four year old, particularly a four year old on the very top of the growth chart knows, growing pains a very real thing. It will take your happy go lucky little guy or gal and turn them into a screamy little thing that Ibuprofen and snuggles can hardly alleviate. Then BAM. It's gone as fast as it started.

According to KidsHealth.org, the average four year old boy is 40 lbs and about 40 inches tall. E2 is 49 lbs and according to the doctor's office, right at 47 inches tall. He has grown two and half inches in five months. If you do the math, he's growing at a rate of an eight of an inch PER WEEK.



I told you that story to tell you this story.

E2 has been complaining of growing pains in his tib/fib (lower legs) often over the last few weeks. Well, DUH (see above story). We've treated it with ibuprofen, snuggles and some "toughen up, kid" well-meaning encouragements.

Sunday night he had another painful round, and Monday started saying his upper right leg hurt in the femur area. The weather was great outside Tuesday, well, at least it was tolerable. E2, E3 and I decided to enjoy it and got outside for some bike time before it turned nasty again. E2 had very little complaints of pain that day.

We had fun with E3 Yaba Daba Doing' in his walker and E2 zipping around on his "trick bike."

Later that night E2 would complain of growing pains again, and define them in his upper right leg. In the middle of the night he would wake up, crying and come to our bed saying his leg hurt. He fell right back asleep.

In the morning he woke again screaming, but much worse. I first thought he was having a cramp as he said he couldn't move. He couldn't get off the bed. He couldn't put weight on it.

That is NOT a growing pain. I called the pediatrician. The receptionist said for something like that I needed to talk to a nurse to schedule. While I waited on hold, he was improving. Gingerly putting weight on his leg to limp around.  Our usual Ped wasn't in, but the nurse encouraged us to come in instead of waiting for the next day.

We went to the gym for a bit and I told the staff that he was acting funny and shouldn't be playing rough. They thought maybe he was faking, but it was apparent he was not. When we went to the appointment a couple hours later his walking was improved but he was still visibly favoring his leg.

He was not keen on going to the doctor and was very anxious when we arrived. I was too. To make things more difficult, we also had little E3 in tow. He stayed calmish in the infant carrier during most of the appointment, but during examination, when E2 screamed, E3 flipped his shit too.

The doc manipulated his leg around and noticed that the pain wasn't so much focused in the upper femur area as I was describing, but in his hip.  She also checked for lymph node swelling and other signs of infections or diseases.

There were a few things she told me she wanted to check for and the steps we were going to do. First, an X-Ray to determine if there was a possible fracture in the hip socket somewhere as that's where pain was localized. He wasn't presenting any soft tissue pains that were apparent, so the likelihood of a hip flexor or muscle strain was not likely. If nothing showed on the X-Ray, we would move to blood work and then possibly and ultrasound.

She mentioned bacterial or viral infections, toxic synovitis, or a blood or bone condition. She said blood or bone condition and I nearly choked. I new she was looking for something scary and I was trying not to think of it.

She made us an urgent appointment at the hospital's diagnostic imaging center about 20 minutes away. I promised him we would stop for sonic chocolate shake with a cherry to make him feel better.

When we got to the imaging center, he was feeling much better. I think the cherry was the best medicine. There was a mountain of paperwork to fill out and I knew that E3 was needing a diaper change. The receptionist kept handing me more papers. As E3 grew more grumpy I and E2 was wandering with a limp around I was questioning if we even needed to be there. The woman behind the counter was slow, and finally I stopped her when the sweet smell hit my nose. "I need a restroom to change him in," I told her. She informed me that there were no changing stations. Long hair, don't care. "Ma'am, I am just going to need a sink," I replied after peeling back his carseat cover.

To say he had shat himself would be a gross understatement.

I had to carry the limping kid since he was moving to slow and push the stroller of the screaming little kid into the too tiny bathroom. The sink was smaller than the keyboard of the MacBook I'm currently typing from.

I extracted E3 to find that he had blown out the back of his onsie, and all the way down the inside of his pants TO HIS SOCKS and into the car seat cover. So thankful I had that cover on. As I was stripping him of clothing and trying hose him off in the sink that wasn't big enough to wash my hands, there was a knock on the door.  "Occupied," Knock Knock Knock. "OCCUPIED." Handle rattles. Finally, I flung the door open, holding a baby naked from the waist down, a hand full of paper towels, and I myself was stripped down to just my nursing tank. "IT WILL BE A MOMENT." I tell the woman who just didn't have a clue. "Oh sorry, I didn't know it was a single stall."

REALLY!?

Not fifteen seconds later there was another knock. You've got to be freaking kidding me. This time I just opened the door. It was the receptionist. "They're ready for him."  Awesome. She tracked me into the bathroom.

After getting Sir Shitsalot changed and my pullover wiped off we made it back into the waiting area. They took us back quickly and informed E2 to change into a gown. He wasn't having it. Once he was finally changed the tech escorted us back to a room for imaging. E2 did remarkably well holding still and I had to stand just outside the room with E3. I managed to snap one picture before the amicable tech sprouted a second head and turned green telling me "NO PICTURES. THAT IS NOT ALLOWED."   Ok, Christ. There's not a sign. And it's my fucking kid, bitch.  Alright, so I thought it, I didn't say it.

Our Ped said that we would wait there for further instructions after imaging and the radiologist would let us know if we needed to go back for lab work or if we were okay to leave.  In just a couple moments she was back telling us we were fine to go and that the X-Ray was clear.  Yay!  But wait, now what? We left the building and started toward home. I got to thinking and decided to call the doctor's office but was put on hold to talk to a nurse. Screw this, I thought and flipped the car around. There is another site for our same pediatrician right near the hospital. I pulled in and ran in to talk to the receptionist there. A few moments later she came to tell me they did indeed need labs.

Oh boy. E2 is getting blood drawn. We got called back to a room and settled in. I was able to nurse E3 for a bit and try to get a call in to Husband Dearest to tell him what was going on. That's when the lab tech and nurses came in to get blood. I passed E3 off to the nurse that thought she was going to try to hold E2. Ha.

The tech started to explain how I was going to "help hold E2." I wasn't trying to be a bitch but I stopped her and told her how it was going to happen. She told me she "does this all day and we need to do it (her) way."  OOOOOHHHKKAAAYYY.

Ten seconds later she was squarely kicked in her vag by a thrashing 50 lb four year old. She reneged and asked how I thought we should hold him. It worked. Poor dude screamed bloody murder getting the tourniquet put on and even worse seeing the needle go in his little arm.

We were released to go home with knowledge of results to be returned stat. Little man screamed for fifteen minutes while driving and finally settled when I told him he could eat popcorn and watch Monsters University at home. He calmed and then fell asleep.

Hours later the on call pediatrician gave me a ring to let us know all labs were clear. So now we're thankful for no big scary diseases but don't know what's going on. Our instructions were to call in the morning if it was worse or not improved.

As it is now the little E's are playing in the living room. E2 has a limp, although is not complaining of any pain and is even asking to ride his bike. I'm going to call that as improved, but not markedly.

For now we will watch and see how he is. We're unsure if there's anything else going on. Also, after doing some research most toxic synovitis goes away in about 10 days, so if that's the case, it isn't anything drastic (although a friend's sister had a serious case which makes me weary). As much as I hate to say it, E2 probably won't get to race arenacross at the Sprint Center this weekend unless we see a big turnaround before Saturday afternoon. Fingers crossed.

Hip Hip Hooray.