Last week when Leni was sick, she remained almost entirely horizontal from Wednesday morning until Thursday evening. Her first foray off the couch, my lap or her crib was only a few feet down to the floor (where she did some “colouring”), but it felt like huge progress. By Friday the rash was entirely gone and she only spent the first couple hours lying down, a vast improvement. By Saturday, she was all toddler again. Busy and bustling and ready to go. Once the rash was entirely gone though, we noticed that she was still in some pain around her chest when we picked her up or she leaned too heavily on the left side. In fact she appeared to have some issues keeping balanced when she walked, hugging the left arm closer to her body.

On our way out the door to the paediatricians last week, Leni slipped off the couch before I could catch her. I didn’t mention it because, well honestly, it’s not that unusual for her to have tumbles–she is still figuring out her limitations after all. She cried for a bit, but she recovered by the time we got to the car. The next day a rather dark little bruise showed up on her cheek (not the first time for that either, unfortunately, although definitely the worst), but otherwise she didn’t have any other signs that anything else was amiss. Thinking back, it’s probably more likely her cries once we got to the doctors were communicating this pain and not her discomfort from the roseola, but I was so focused on that and there were no marks on her body (none even still), I just had no idea there was anything else going on.

On the weekend we had a playdate with Nicole and Kyra. Seeing Leni favouring the one side, Nicole told me this story about her friend whose child stopped crawling one day without showing any sign of distress. Long story short, it turned out the baby had a fracture and it took a couple visits before they even thought to get an x-ray. The children’s walk-in physician told us to just wait and see a few more days, but the thought of a possible fracture really scared me so I ignored him and took her into her doctor on Monday. We got an x-ray and it turns out she fractured her clavicle! God. Poor little babe! In the x-ray it looked like a tiny bend in the bone. And on top of that she got her first really nasty diaper rash that required medication. Essentially, she went from no health issues to viruses, broken bones and painful rashes within a week. Yeesh.

She can’t have a cast because she’s too young for the kind required for such a break. Her doctor doesn’t think we’ll have much luck keeping her in a sling either. Plus it would screw with her balance even more. So all we can do is manage her pain with tempra while the break heals and try to take it easy. Her doctor assured us it will heal entirely, but she’ll probably get a temporary bump in the process. The good news is that she really does seem to be improving every day. She has barely needed any tempra and still has a shocking amount of energy. Her diaper rash is almost healed now, too, thank goodness.

My kid is seriously tough. I mean, put any adult in the same position and they’d have been an utter mess. Leni, on the hand, has been playing with only the occasional sign that she is in any way uncomfortable. Like, who the heck is this kid?

Sigh. It’s been an interesting couple weeks, I’ll tell you. I feel like the universe is trying to tell me that I’m not quite worried enough. Oh yes, you know how you lie awake at night worrying over things that maybe could, but probably won’t happen? Well it turns out there are bad things that hadn’t even occurred to you, so please add these your list. It’s clear that my only course of action is to replace all the furniture with cushions and keep her away from other (potentially germ-infested) children from here on out.

For reals though, even if I had known sooner, there’s probably little more I could’ve done. Still, you better believe I’m beating myself up about it. But, you know what? Leni is going to get sick again and in all likelihood we will have to help her through other injuries (knock on wood). I never thought she’d have a fracture this young, mind you, but so it goes. I’ve never even had one myself in my almost 32 years (knock on wood). I definitely need to spend more time teaching her a little more caution, but otherwise it’s part of growing up I guess. I’m glad that we spend time around other kids (and parents) and I love that she is adventurous and I don’t want that to change. I am so grateful that Leni is on the mend and I know we’ll be able to get through anything else that comes our way (knock on wood). But please just give her (and us) a little break before the next crisis.