Maggie's 1st trip to Children's Hospital

We've had a frightening few days around here but all seems to be OK. On Sunday, Maggie just stopped walking. She was twirling around one minute and then she just sat down and wouldn't move. She has consistently pointed to the same spot on her foot as her "owie." She's had very non-Maggie-like behaviors (like crying for 2 hours at night about her owie). I was thinking she'd gotten into the habit of favoring it that night but in the morning, she'd wake up and have forgotten all about it. Not at all - she woke up sucking her thumb and holding onto her foot. We went to see the doctor at Pediatric Associates yesterday. Unfortunately our regular doctor wasn't in but we saw a rotating doctor. He did some x-rays and also got to see first hand how badly Maggie's foot hurt when she tried to take a step and fell to the floor in a heap with a scream. He told me if it wasn't better by tomorrow, to come back.

She woke up this morning and it still wasn't any better. I figured with the snow in the forecast, I'd rather get her in. Besides, no matter how hard I tried to remain level-headed, I was starting to freak out. I took her into the ER at Children's Hospital and from the moment we got there, they reassured me that I'd done the right thing. I had to chuckle as they first walked us in...I was able to remember back to my last visit to Children's and walking thru that hall. We took Ragen there when he was 11 months old because he had such a horrible flu and wasn't drinking or peeing. After staying with him in our room for hours, I was starting to feel like maybe his flu was contagious. I took off running for the bathroom but never made it. I puked right there in the hallway of the hospital. Not my finest moment.

Back to our current situation. They took new x-rays and also took some bloodwork. That was the thing I was most hoping they'd take a closer look at. I just wanted to hear that her levels looked normal and thankfully, all seems fine there. Poor little Mags was not at all happy when they put her IV in and I don't blame her. That was my most uncomfortable part of childbirth. They still don't know why she's not walking but they gave her a walking boot to try and help her stay used to walking on it. It took awhile to get her to try that first step but now she's cruzing as long as she has the boot on. Without it, she still crumbles to the floor.

They want her to go back to her primary care doctor tomorrow if she's still not using her foot so I'll keep you posted. I'm just so relieved to have some of my worst fears eliminated.

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As a side note to those of you who are following sweet little Ben Towne's battle with neuroblastoma, as you can imagine, I thought of him and his family often today at the hospital. When Maggie & I were waiting in a small room for the x-ray, Maggie crawled over to get a book. She picked one out of the pile and brought it to me. I went to go read it to her and right there inside the cover was a sticker saying "Donated in honor of Ben Towne." My heart skipped a beat and then I smiled. I couldn't believe that in this entire hospital, Maggie picked up a book honoring Ben. Maggie doesn't know it but before the story started, we said a little prayer for Ben. Such an amazing little boy touching people's lives when least expected.

Just after the IV was put in - you can't see the giant crocodile tear stuck on her cheek

Talking to daddy when he called to check-in
On the move again!