Our {Almost} One Year Old Has A What??

I have been a mom for almost seven years, and the one thing I have learned is trust your mom gut. Always.

About a month before Abram turned one, Ryan and I went on a weekend getaway for a convention. We left the kids with my Milly (mother in love) and had a great time! When we returned, everything seemed to had gone well and the kids were great. Until that afternoon … and then next day. We started to notice that Abram wasn’t using his right arm. That was concerning because he was already showing favoritism to his right arm and hand. Being the paranoid mom that I am, I called the pediatrician immediately and took him in. The pediatrician saw us and assured us it was something that happens commonly that most parents aren’t even aware of – nurse maid’s elbow. He felt his arm, said he was good to go, and said he would be sore for a day or two, and then he would be back to normal.

Insert mom guilt

I felt so bad that we left him and he got hurt and how did this even happen?! My mind was going a mile a minute. Eventually I calmed down and realized it wasn’t a big deal. Except two days later, he was using his arm even less. Back to the pediatrician we went (they knew me by name at this point). I explained to the doctor that something just wasn’t right. I couldn’t explain it, but deep down I knew something is wrong. He sent us for x-rays, which came back normal so he sent us home telling us it will heal; it was just taking longer than usual.

Abram is our first boy, and he is extremely rough & tumble. He’s a social bug, sweet, and hyper! But while all of this was going on, he just snuggled and cried. By this time, I was fed up so off to the Emergency Room we went. Once we were there, they were saying the same thing – nurse maids elbow. X-rays, rest, and it will heal. They wrapped his little arm to his chest to stabilize and help it heal. Again, we went home so upset because something was visibly wrong with him. He was running a low grade fever as well, but no one would listen to us.

Our one year old has a what?!

Finally, we went back to the ER again, but this time I wasn’t leaving without answers. I was done being ignored and looked over. It just so happened that my husband’s cousin lived in NYC and was going to school to be a doctor. Desperately, I reached out to her to see if she had any ideas. She suggested that we ask the doctors to look for a bone infection. When I asked them, they looked at me like I was off my rocker, but the next day it was confirmed. He had a bone infection! Our one year old has a what?!

Unfortunately for our sweet boy, that was only the beginning. Bone infections can’t be treated with traditional, oral antibiotics. They are treated with IV antibiotics which means he would need a central line placed. Afterward, he went on to have IV antibiotics every 6 hours that ran for 2 hours for seven weeks. We went to the infusion center once a week. His fever then spiked to 105 and when the doctors tried to remove his central line, it broke and he finally had to have surgery to remove the central line.

All of this to say – trust your mom gut!

I knew something was wrong and wouldn’t take “it’s nothing” for an answer. If his bone infection would have gone undiagnosed for longer, then we may not have had the same results as we do today. Our orthopedic told us we were very lucky, but we know we were blessed!

Danielle
Danielle is married to Ryan and together they have four beautiful babies. They're raising Lexi, Abram, Sutton and Beckham on the bayou in Crown Point. She is a self-proclaimed hot mess, Jesus-loving, homeschooling, Netflix binging, crafting and party planning stay at home mom. Sutton was born with achondroplasia dwarfism so advocating and raising awareness is important to her. Most nights once the kids are asleep you will find her staying up way too late to enjoy the quiet that happens after four kids.

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