The foot...

On Sunday, as we flew back from our trip, I noticed T (21 months) had a little bump on her foot where the bruise had been. I noted it and decided if it wasn't better in a couple of days I'd call the doctor. Tuesday morning the bump was significantly smaller--actually almost gone. The bruise was gone too. I was relieved. Since Tuesday, I hadn't really look at the foot that closely again.

This morning, we went to gymnastics. T jumped off a box that was at least a foot high, maybe 18 inches high, and landed on a mat. She sat there.... 1, 2, 3.... High shrill scream.... The kind that makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up. I picked her up and her foot was red and a little swollen. She writhed in paind and screamed for a while... It seemed like forever, but it probably was only 3 -5 minutes.

The teacher got us some frozen peas to put on her foot. T didn't really want them. Well, she wanted to open the bag and eat them, but she didn't want them on her foot. After the peas (another 2 minutes), T wanted to do the rest of class. She ran. She stood on her tip-toes. She walked on the beam. She did flips on the bar. The teacher was freaked. I was pretty freaked myself.

I called the doctor. We went in. T is walking with a slight limp... It's a VERY VERY slight limp. She has a lovely bruise again. It had almost gone away completely, but it's back now. T can bear full weight and stand on her tip-toes. The doctor felt the foot and said, maybe we should get an x-ray.

I asked what the treatment was if T's foot were broken in the spot right below her little toe. The doctor said, "Nothing."

Knowing how much T would love getting an x-ray, I asked, "Then is it necessary to do the x-ray?" The doctor was encouraging the x-ray, but really, she just wanted the x-ray in case it doesn't heal in a week or so. The doctor also just wanted to know for sure. Since my daughter was running around and not being slowed down by her injury, I wasn't really hip on getting an x-ray just for the doctor's edification. The doctor offered to call a pediatric podiatrist and get a second opinion. I agreed that would be good.

The pediatric podiatrist thought it was fine to wait a week to see if T is okay or not getting better. If she's okay, we skip the x-ray. If she's limping or getting worse, we get it. Sounds good to me. I imagining it will be better in a week... As long as she stops jumping off tall buildings.

See the original bruise here.