In early March, just after Frankie's 2nd birthday, she was jumping in her crib and suddenly fell to the mattress crying. She wouldn't/couldn't stand up after that. She would crawl around, but put no weight on it. I just figured it was a sprain or something. After two days, I went to the walk-in clinic. The doc there said her leg was probably just a soft-tissue injury because she could crawl on it. The next day, I went to her regular ped. She said a two-year old with a limp was not normal. She referred us to an orthopedist.
The ortho. X-rayed and found a fracture. I thought this was very unusual, since she was just jumping in her bed. The ortho. said it can happen. He gave us a brace, and then Frankie would walk on it again. Two weeks later, we are in the yard and my dog knocks Frankie over - no big deal, except she screamed and refused to stand, this time on the OTHER leg. I freak out. I call my husband at work, tell him what happened and that I am afraid that (1) she has some terrible cancer that is making her legs break or (2) social services is going to take her because she has two broken legs. I call the ortho's office and the nurse tells me to relax, that it can't be some kind of cancer because they took an x-ray. I go back in, he doesn't see a fracture, but tells me to put the brace on the other leg, see how it goes for 10 days and then come back for a re-check.
No one is overly concerned, so I relax a bit. Then she gets an ear infection, antibiotics, double ear infection, more antibiotics. I ask her ped. why it isn't going away - she said because Frankie is allergic to Amoxicillin, they have to give her a different antibiotic and those don't work as well, so it's normal.
Poor kid didn't walk for a month, and was in and out of fevers - she was whiney, wanted to be held a lot, didn't want to play with anything or anyone. I chalked this up to her not being able to walk and having all these fevers - she just didn't feel well.
The day before my 10 days was up to re-visit the ortho., I was having lunch with some friends. At the very end of lunch, I mentioned that Frankie has two injured legs - and she fractured one jumping in her bed. I mention this as an after-thought, and like "isn't this weird" kind of thing. My one friend, before she even has time to think (because if she had, she wouldn't have said this probably), says, "isn't that how Karen found out that Jack had leukemia? Didn't he break a leg jumping in bed?"
Of course, I freak out, call the ortho when I get home and schedule an appt. for the next day. I also call my ped. who says it is very unlikely that it's leukemia since she had a blood test done a month ago and it was fine.
I go to the ortho, he x-rays Frankie and now sees a fracture (I guess they are easier to see when they start to heal). I say "Please, don't tell me this is normal" and he agrees. Orders a bone-density test, an MRI, and some other bone thing. Then he asks, "has she had any fevers?" I of course ask if he's thinking leukemia. He tries to look like he's not, but I know he is.
So, I go to Children's Hospital, get blood work, all this other stuff and while she is in recovery for the MRI, the nurse tells me the ortho. is on the phone for me. I'll never forget the sick-sound to his voice when he says "Mrs. Deutsch, I'm sorry to tell you this but your daughter's blood counts are very low. You need to go to the ER right away." I'm in a daze now, and ask what this means, how low? He says they are dangerously low and she will need a transfusion immediately.
So, we go to ER, are transferred to the HOT unit, BMA, blood transfusion, "I'm sorry, your daughter has leukemia."
Deanna