We had a big scare this week. My 7 year old son began complaining about right leg pain. It was in the upper portion of the leg, and I just thought it was nothing because he would complain and then go about doing what ever he wanted to without favoring it at all. I thought maybe it was growing pains.
Then one night at soccer practice, he told me that his leg was hurting too much to play. I told him to just take it easy and rest it. He did, but even when he complained about it, he didn't complain in his usual whinny way like he usually does, he was just really serious and said that he couldn't play.
When he went to bed that night, he complained again that his leg was hurting and I gave him some Tylenol and put him to bed. Once he fell asleep, he kept waking up and whining in pain and then going back to sleep. By morning he couldn't even walk on it, and I carried him to the couch and laid him down. He would seem fine at one minute, but he would cry out in pain in the next minute and I didn't know what to do since I had to go to work. I called my husband home from work so that he could stay at home with him while I went to work.
My husband called me twice that morning at work, and I told him to make an appointment for him at the pediatrician and that I would be home shortly. By the time I arrived home, it seemed as if the pain was in his groin region, and my husband was convinced that it was a hernia and that he would have to go in for surgery. I was panicked and was really trying to hold it together.
When we got to the doctor, I laid him down on the table and after the doctor examined him, he said that the pain was actually isolated in the right hip, and that it might have slipped out of the joint and that it would have to be x-rayed. I asked him what would come of it, and he said if it was just slightly out of place, that they could immobilize it and give him pain meds, but if it was more severely out of joint my little boy would need hip surgery. He said this was a very odd pain for a 7 year old boy to have, especially without any trauma. Now, needless to say I was really worried and we went off to the hospital to get his hip x-rayed.
The x-ray tech at the hospital was really frustrated at the idea of having me in the room with him, but I insisted. I have never been the type to let the doctor's and nurses take over with my kids, I fight to be present for just about anything. Anyway, they x-rayed him, but due to the amount of pain he was in, they couldn't get the x-rays exactly the way they wanted to. Then they insisted on re x-raying him which then they still didn't get what they wanted, on the third re x-ray I was concerned and started to believe that he had cancer or something and that they just didn't want to scare me.
Well finally they let me talk to the pediatrician on the phone, and he told me that thankfully the x-rays didn't show any problem in the joint, and that I could just give him ibuprofen and let him rest and he should be fine by the end of the weekend. Sure enough, the pain disappeared and he was walking and running as good as new within 48 hours. The only thing that scares me, is where did this pain come from and how can we be sure that it won't return.
Posted on Friday, June 06, 2008 1:05 AM by Carol Ann