Say What? ...

My little guy, Donovan, woke up today complaining of his leg hurting.  He initially said it was his knee and then decided it was his ankle on his left leg.  He fell yesterday while running on the hardwood floor.  Although I didn't see how he fell, I saw the end result of him laying "splat" face down on the floor crying - with his toys spewed across the floor in front of him.

Given his platelet function issue, the first thing I check for is bruises.  No bruise surfaced yesterday and I didn't see any this morning, and no visible swelling either.  But, when I picked him up from the breakfast/bar-stool and put him on the floor, his left leg buckled and luckily I was still holding him or he would have collapsed to the floor.  That concerned me.  So of course, I call Jon we converse and both decide that maybe a call the hematologist's office might not be a bad idea.  We weren't exactly sure where he needed to go and whom he should see.  Jon called the doctor's office while I dropped Norah off at school and proceeded to Donovan's preschool.  I was uneasy about letting him go to school and run around, but didn't want him to miss another day since he's missed a lot already since January started.  The hematologist were comfortable with passing him off to his regular pediatrician for an exam and possible x-ray of the leg.  So Jon made an appointment this afternoon with a pediatrician and I went home with Donovan.

I noticed he was favoring his left leg as did my parents.  So I felt better that we had the appointment.

The pediatrician noticed he was favoring his left leg and suspected that it was his ankle but decided that an x-ray of his knee and ankle would be in his best interest.  Luckily for Donovan, he's got short legs so they can do the x-ray in two quick and easy pictures.  Fortunately for us, the medical center has a radiology center so all we had to do was go across the hall to get his x-rays and then back to the pediatrician's office for the "unofficial" results.

The pediatrician took a look at the x-rays and it was obvious that there was no fracture of any kind (thank goodness) but there did appear to look like some minor soft tissue swelling in his ankle.  I actually could see it too.  So he's supposed to take it easy and take tylenol for the next 24-48 hours.  If you ask him, he's fine!  I think he has a very high tolerance to pain.

But ... while looking at the x-ray the pediatrician noticed that at the top and bottom of the "long bones" in his legs there was these white parallel lines that were perpendicular to the length of the long bone.  You can see these 3 or 4 lines on the bone above the knee, the bone below the knee and on the bone right above the ankle.  She said she wasn't certain what this was, but it was really odd.  She said it would be interesting to see what the radiologist says after reading the x-ray and giving a full report.

As we always do, whomever goes with the kids to the doctors office, the one not there requires a call immediately after the appointment.  So I called Jon on my way home and told him the news.  Told him about the white lines on the x-ray and he proceeded to "google" it.  The first thing he read was that it could be a result of "lead poisoning" of which I was dumbfounded because I have no idea where Donovan (or Norah) would have been exposed to lead.  Then Jon read further through the google search to find our answer ... its where the bone stops growing due to malnourishment and/or illness.  Then once the body is "nourished" again the bone begins to grow.  So Donovan's bone has stopped growing abruptly and then restarted to grow just as quickly causing these parallel lines.

After Jon read the description all I can think of was, we got our answer to why he hasn't grown much in the last year.  And then all I could think of was, thank goodness we have documentation in his medical files that Donovan has been to a feeding clinic, was diagnosed with a gluten intolerance and that we take him to the doctor's on a regular basis.  Had we taken him to a hospital out of the Cleveland Clinic network, I'm afraid that Child Services would be knocking at our door!  Questioning whether or not we feed our child.

At least we are armed with some more information to bring to the endocrinologist in June.  I also feel good about being very forceful about his eating issue last year.  Definitely a testament to making sure your child is nourished!  What I saw on the x-ray was quite obvious!  I'm glad the pediatrician we saw knew Donovan and his medical history!  Because, I certainly would have been asking questions if I was her!