Since Lizzy was unable to take Avery on Monday or Tuesday of this week, Josh stayed home with her yesterday and I am home with her today. By a stroke of luck, Fairmont was having their annual family pumpkin patch event yesterday afternoon, so Josh was able to take Avery over to see Gammy and Uncle Aaron and play in the jumper.
Unfortunately he didn't do too much better at getting a good "pumpkin picture," as Avery seems to love making a scowly face at us at every opportunity.
To everyone's horror, somewhere between the bounce house and the playground, Avery sustained an injury. No one is exactly sure what happened, and she never cried, but she suddenly became unable to walk. She would take a couple of steps like a wobbly baby trying to walk for the first time, and then her left leg would give out and she would collapse onto the ground. After a few attempts, she gave up and only wanted to be carried.
When I arrived home from work, Josh told me what had happened. She was fine as long as she was not trying to put weight on it. So I decided that we should let her go to sleep and I would call the doctor right away in the morning.
This morning her leg did seem slightly better, but she was still grabbing at her knee and hesitating to put weight onto her left side. She looked less like a wobbly baby and more like an old lady who is afraid to walk across the room unless she has something to hold onto. I encouraged her to play on the floor until the doctor's office opened at 8:00. Dr. Messinger told me that he wanted to see her, and that he would most likely be ordering X-rays, so I packed some food and prepared myself for a long day at the medical center.
Avery did really well on the "big girl" scale for the first time (she is now a whopping 27.4 pounds), and even sat very quietly while the nurse took her temperature and listened to her heart. But as soon as the nurse left, she started asking for "house?" because she wanted to bolt out of there and go home.
When Dr. Messinger came in, the screaming and clinging started. It's amazing to me how long we can go between visits and yet she still remembers how much she hates the crinkly paper on the exam table and the sight of the doctor. I explained to him what I knew about her injury, and then he examined her ankles, knees and hips while I held her sobbing in my lap.
Everything checked out okay, but he wanted to see her walk so that he could observe the limping and collapsing that I was describing. Since Avery was clinging so tightly, I suggested that I set her down at one end of the hall and then jog down to the other end and let her try to walk to me.
So we did. I took a screaming Avery out into the hallway, put her down, and made a quick 20-foot dash to the other end and held out my arms. And down the hall she sailed, without so much as a hitch in her step.
I was dumbfounded. The doctor said, "Um, let's try that again." At this point I actually found myself wishing that she would start limping so that I would not look like a complete freak show. So I made her come back down the hall to me, and again she whisked like a spring gazelle. I couldn't decide if I was more relieved or embarrassed as Dr. Messinger remarked, "Well, looks like she is ready for the Olympics!"
I spared him a bunch of the other theories that Josh and I had concocted after spending some time scouring the internet last night for clues. I decided it was probably best not to mention that we suspected our daughter, who has perfect vital signs and just completed a flawless sprint down the hallway, has leukemia or toxic synovitis.
But I did decide to ask one last question. "Um, can you check her ears before we go?" He seemed a little confused, but said, "Sure. What's going on with her ears?" So I stammered through a story about how she has randomly been saying "Bugs?" and grabbing at her right ear. I always tell her that there are not bugs in her ear, but then I think about that news story about the kid with spiders living in his ear and start to panic. What if there actually IS a bug in her ear, and I am just brushing her off? What if it lays eggs in there? I would be the worst mother ever.
"Nope, no bugs..."
I am lucky I didn't walk out of there with a doctor's order to check into the mental hospital.
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