Major Mommy Fail

Over a week ago my nanny called to tell me that TT had fallen at school and hurt her arm. The school nurse thought she was fine, but Nanny thought it looked swollen and said that TT was complaining about it a lot. So I left work early so that I could take a look and determine if she needed to go to an urgent care center (of course, it was 4:00 on a Friday afternoon and I wasn't getting in with my doc.) And because I have broken half the bones in my body and nobody (including the school nurse) ever believed I had a break--except my mom. ( And every time she said it was broken it really was.)

But when I got home it didn't look very bad. So I just hung out with her and watched to see if she was using or favoring her arm. I started tossing toys at her to see if she would catch them. And she really seemed fine. So I did not take her in.

Sometime last week, she fell at school (again) and hurt her arm (again). She has been falling a lot and has been getting big ugly bruises, so I called the doc to make an appointment. And they couldn't get me in until this Monday. Yeah, I was annoyed, but she still wasn't acting particularly hurt, so I didn't push it. Meanwhile, over the weekend, TT fell (again) while riding her bicycle and hurt her arm a third time

So Monday she finally got to see the doc, who took five vials of blood (for the clumsiness and unexplained bruising) and ordered an X-ray because she though TT's arm was pretty swollen (but not bruised, despite the giant bruises she has been getting everywhere else).

Today I got the results of both. TT's wrist is fractured and we have an appointment with an orthopedist tomorrow to have a cast put on. Yeah, totally missed that one. Apparently I did not inherit my mother's ability to diagnose broken bones. (I went more than two weeks with two broken feet last summer before I saw a doc, so I really should have know this.) God, I feel terrible. I felt like a mommy failure when PS first had to get glasses because I hadn't noticed sooner that she couldn't read anything. This is about a million times worse.

And while her bloodwork ruled out most blood disorders, her ANA count was very high, which can be indicative of an autoimmune disorder. We have been referred to a pediatric rheumatologist, but apparently, there is only one pediatric rheumatologist in all of Big City. (How is that possible?) So who knows how long it will take to actually get an appointment with this doctor. Meanwhile I am trying not to freak out. WedMD is not helping. But I did get some comfort from reading actual medical journals that seem to indicate a fairly high number of false-positives with this test.

Of course, adding to my worry is the fact that this child is an identical twin. Which means that if she does have something serious, there's a good possibility that her twin could have the same thing. Ugh. It sucks when you can't protect your kids from crap like this.