The Story of Julesy and his Bum Leg

Feb 18th 2010

Julesy is a walking calamity. Last summer he went to the ER because he took a nose dive off the back of the recliner – right in front of us – before we could stop him. It couldn’t have been helped, no matter how closely we were watching him. And neither could last night’s incident.

Just after we got home from the exhilarating appointment with our homebirth CNM, I was standing in the kitchen reading the mail as Julesy paced back and forth the way toddlers do. One minute he’s pacing, and the next minute – less than 24 inches from me – he somehow slips and manages to bust his ankle. I heard a “Pop!” and then he screamed like I’ve never heard him scream before. We all rushed to him, but we couldn’t figure out what he managed to bump himself on. We thought maybe he had just stubbed his toe on the threshold between the kitchen and dining room because there was absolutely nothing else anywhere near him. But his toes didn’t seem to hurt, and there was no swelling anywhere. He calmed down after awhile, but then, he refused to walk. He wouldn’t put any weight on his leg whatsoever. We searched him up and down for swelling, or bruising, or SOME indication of what was hurting him, and still we found nothing.

We thought maybe his foot was just a little sore, and hoped it might feel better this morning. But again, this morning, he screamed every time he tried to walk. So we called the doc and they told us to come on it. The doc localized the pain to his ankle and sent me with kids in tow to the hospital for x-rays. While I was holding Julesy in place for the X-rays, I hear overhear Jonas in the radiology room flirting with the cute, female radiologist (I swear, that child will talk to anyone) and out of the clear blue sky he says,

“Yeah, my mommy and daddy are giving me a little sister.”

So, the radiologist sees clearly that I’m not showing, and she asks him,

“Oh really? When will your baby sister be here?”

And Jonas responds confidently,

“Next Wednesday.”

I always wonder if that boy is psychic. Of course I won’t be giving him a sister next Wednesday, but maybe I’ll give him a sister on some Wednesday? I sure hope he knows something I don’t know.

So back to poor Julesy. They tell us the Ped will call us later with the results. So I shove my tired, hungry kids back into the car (at this point we’d been at this adventure for 3 hours already) and I treat us all to Happy Meals on the way home. It’s a good thing I stopped too, because just before I pulled into our garage, the Ped calls us and says Julesy’s ankle is fractured, so I have to drive all the way back to the hospital, pick up the X-rays, then go all the way to the orthopedic surgeon to have a cast set.

Jee. Zus.

This is all occurring on a day that I’m sick as a dog, and so are the kids. As I’m trying to fill out paper work, my hands and clothes are full of snot. I look, and feel, like a total wreck.

Thankfully the kids slept in the car on the long ride back to the hospital. When we got there, I stuck Julesy in the umbrella stroller, still asleep, and strapped Jonas to my back in the Mei Tai (which he still loves.) We grabbed the X-rays, and head across town to the orthopedic surgeon. I thought surely these kids were going to enter Meltdown City after being dragged in and out of the car for 6 hours, but they did shockingly well. I guess they knew I needed a break today.

Finally, at 3 pm, the orthopedic surgeon looks at Julesy’s X-ray and says he doesn’t see a fracture, or at least not one big enough to worry about. He says no cast will be necessary, and that Julesy is obviously smart enough to stay off the ankle which is all that’s needed. We just need to go back in a week for a follow-up visit.

Oh, Julesy. Poor kid. He’s just such a bruiser. Something tells me this will not be the last time the child sees the inside of a radiology room. I just hope it always turns out as benign as it did today.

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