A Very Scary Day

Weston had a doctors appointment with an orthopedic doctor about his leg yesterday. Several months ago he hurt it really bad and was screaming and screaming so I went straight to Urgent Care because I thought it was broken. After the x-rays, we were told it was a really bad sprain. Since then, there have been a few times that he has re-injured it easily and it takes a while to heal. It happened again about two weeks ago. So I talked to his primary doctor about it. They sent me to have x-rays done of his hip, knee, and ankle/foot. When those didn't show anything, he set up an appointment with an orthopedic doctor...

The doctor gave him a couple minute exam, left the room to review the X-rays from last week and several months ago, and came in and told me he thought he had a bone marrow issue and I needed to take him to have blood-work done to test for leukemia!! I was shocked and upset. He said this very point blank without acting like it could be anything else. I tried to talk to him about it saying I really didn't think it could be anything like that and why I felt that way and he and he simply responded, "He should have been healed by now and this is more serious. I will set up the appointment for him to be tested for leukemia today." Terrible bed side manner and then left the room. I was shaking. I'm not sure I've ever experienced fear like that before. A nurse came in and handed me a paper to go get him tested when I left. I gathered the kids, walked to the car, buckled them in, and stood there and cried while explaining it all to Nathan.

We had to wait around for an hour to have blood taken from both his arms. Several times I kept tearing up. I was trying to be strong but I was so scared. Having a child with cancer is probably one of my greatest fears if not the greatest. I kept thinking about how the little things didn't matter anymore. Wondering if our adoption would be stopped. Thinking about how much our lives would change. Staring at my precious boy and trying to believe he would be just fine. Part of me was angry. I was mad that this doctor who barely spent time on him would jump to such a big conclusion, drop this bomb on me, and then just walk out. He could have easily said something like, "I've seen some cases where this turned out to be something really serious so I'd like to run a few tests to rule those things out first." But because he mentioned this one thing as if he was so sure it scared me. I know that doctors are regular people too and they make mistakes but I felt like a specialist would know more. - The other part of me was terrified.

When we went back to have his blood taken Addison hit on the other side of the wall and covered her ears. When she saw me crying I told it was because I was afraid he would cry a lot when they took his blood. I didn't know what else to say to her so I'm sure she was preparing for the worst. Weston was so brave! I'm telling you he couldn't have handled it better. He sat in my lap and I and the nurse held him down while she stuck him. He didn't cry, move, or even say ouch. Then we did the other arm and even though they had trouble finding the vein and were moving around in his arm with the needle, he never said a word about it.

Then we had to wait several hours for the test results. The orthopedic doctor had told me to come back in a week but I left messages saying I needed the results today. I was literally sick and very worried thinking my baby might have cancer! THANKFULLY the nurse called me a few hours later and said everything was fine but I cried a lot yesterday and was scared to death for nothing. I am immensely grateful that my sugarboy is healthy!!! However, when the nurse told me that she said they would change my one week appointment to a month from now. I promise I will not be going back to this doctor. I have no idea what he plans to do in a month other than make more money because I don't know any more about his leg today than I did yesterday. I said yes at the time because I was in a state of relief so I wasn't thinking clearly but I plan to call Weston's doctor and explain what happened and see if they will refer us to someone else.