Carter’s Story

Site created on October 16, 2020

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Carter's story started Sunday, October 11th.  Carter was supposed to be helping his dad with the leaves in the yard when he came in whining about his right foot and ankle hurting.  At this time he could walk and couldn't recall hurting it or falling.  Being the mom I am and Carter the boy he is, I checked out his foot and said I didn't see much and to go soak it in the tub if he wanted.  I assumed he just didn't want to rake leaves. Sunday night was the first of many rough nights for Carter.  He didn't sleep much and the pain was getting worse.  

Monday morning Carter tried to get up for school and feel out of bed trying to stand on his leg because the pain was that bad.  At this time, he could still put some weight on the right leg, but was favoring it and limping and hopping quite a bit.  I took him to the clinic Monday morning at 0900.  The provider we saw said she didn't see anything concerning, but that we'd do an x-ray of his ankle for good measure.  The ankle was negative, so she wrapped his ankle and foot up in an ace wrap and sent him to school.  Around lunch time on Monday, I received a call from the school that Carter was laying on the floor crying and that he had had an accident because the pain was so bad he was able to use it enough to make it to the bathroom.  

After picking Carter up from school, I took him to the emergency room.  At this time, the pain was so bad Carter wasn't able to use in  right foot/ankle at all.  While getting checked in, we found out Carter had spiked a temp of 102.4 as well.  During this visit, the ER provider consulted the on call orthopedic provider who suggested obtaining some lab work to check Carter's inflammation markers in his body.  Carter's CRP was 1.9 and his ESR was 54.  Both of these numbers are elevated out of the normal range.  The ER provider said since the labs were not critically high, they were not going to do any further labs or tap Carter's ankle.  They told us Carter had toxic/transient synovitis - which, in layman's terms is similar to a cold in the ankle joint.  They gave Carter a CAM boot, said I should give him high dose Ibuprofen every 8 hours, sent us home and told us to follow up with the orthopedic doctor within the next week.  We had already had on scheduled prior to going into the ER for the following day.  

Monday night was another rough night for Carter.  He was able to sleep because of the pain and really hadn't eaten at all Monday.  He continued to have a fever.  Tuesday afternoon, we went to Carter's ortho appt.  Carter was laying on the office room floor crying in pain.  When the provider entered the room, she asked Carter to get up into the chair.  She proceeded to have me take Carter's CAM boot off and went on to push, pull, twist and turn Carter's right foot and ankle as he screamed out and cried in pain.  She said it isn't broken, but that she'd have and MRI done within the next few days to look for a bone infection, though she said this was very unlikely, and that they would call to schedule that.  She said to continue with the high dose Ibuprofen.  She also sent into a prescription for 8 Norco (narcotic pain medication) for Carter to try at night to help him sleep.  Despite filling this for Carter, I wasn't comfortable giving it to him as he wasn't eating and I didn't want him to get sick.   

We are now at Tuesday evening and Carter is still in uncontrollable pain, is not eating or drinking or finding comfort in any way.  Aaron had made the comment earlier, "Too bad we didn't skip all of these dr visits and just take him to the cities to Children's."  After that, my mind was set.  I was incredibly hesitant and concerned that maybe I'd get the same answers I already had, but because of the amount of pain Carter was in, I was okay with that.  So, I packed a bag for Carter and I and we headed to Minneapolis.  I was confident that even if they sent us home with the same diagnosis, they would at least run all of the necessary tests first to back up what they were saying.  

Newest Update

December 04, 2020

Journal entry by Nicole Loxterkamp —

**Update time!**

Carter had his two week post op check yesterday! 

All of Carter’s labs have come back down and normalized! 

Carter has officially completed his nearly EIGHT weeks of antibiotics and is officially DONE taking them! 

His incision looks pretty good - we are watching a small area at the bottom that is reddened, tender and slightly swollen.  BUT with that being said, myself and his tram of doctors agreed this is the smallest, most normal looking we have seen his leg on two months! 

His sutures were taken out!  This made Carter so incredibly anxious! But he rocked it and was so strong! He took his first shower tonight unsupervised and without wrapping his leg!!

We had some more X-rays done - one of each keg. These will be our official “baseline” X-rays moving forward. We will continue to watch his right leg as much of the bone still has a bright transparent look to it. The hole they had to make during the first surgery hasn’t changed much but the hope is now that the old and new infection seem to have nearly completely resolved, the bone can focus on regrowing again! Carter will have X-rays every 4-6 weeks to monitor his growth plate and ensure it isn’t slowing or getting fused over. So we still have at least a year of follow ups ahead. 

With that being said - who’s ready for the best news yet? 

Carter is WALKING! He was officially given the okay to start walking! He can bare full weight - for the first week, with crutches. After that, without! He is only allowed to walk, though. No running, jumping, twisting, dancing, etc. With that hole in his bone remaining unchanged and it still being somewhat compromised from infection, it is still incredibly vulnerable and weak.  BUT HE IS WALKING! I had to use all of my strength to hide my happy tears from him! 😭😍

We are all done seeing infectious disease unless something reoccurs or new arises. We will continue to see Ortho foe the unforeseeable future - but we don’t go back for SIX weeks, unless anything comes up. 

Yesterday was HUGE! Thank you all for the continued love, prayers and support. Please continue to keep this unimaginably strong little boy on your prayers as he continues on this long journey of recovery. ♥️
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