OUCH!!!!!

Today was a really long and tough day! Julie and Fantaye spent the entire morning at the doctor's office only to be told that Fantaye has a SEVERE SPIRAL FRACTURE of her Tibia (shin) and would need to be taken to specialists down at the Gillette's Children's Hospital in St. Paul. After quickly finishing up work while out in western Minnesota during the morning, I hurried home so that I could join them in St. Paul to have her leg tended to. After several hours and a purple cast later, we were more than ready to treat her to a well deserved meal at the nearby Ethiopian restaurant Fasika. Fantaye ate more than me!

We have seen her take her share of scary falls and bumps in the past two months, but this one has to be the weirdest. She was trying to climb onto the patio chair and accidentally rolled off and fell about a foot and a half. That's it, knee high! Crack! The doctor told us that this is commonly referred to as a "toddler fracture". The reason is that the bones in a toddler don't have much twist/torque forgiveness, so the spiral fracture is a common result of minimal traumas. Unfortunately for Fantaye, a spiral fracture is one of the slower breaks to heal with a six week plus healing period. She will be in this toe to mid thigh cast for four weeks, and then a below knee cast for two more. After that the doctors will have to determine how the healing is progressing.

Even with today being such a long, tiring, painful and hungry day, Fantaye did awesome! She was a relatively happy child all day, even without a much needed nap. The doctors were impressed and grateful at how she sat very quietly and motionless for the entire process.

Wish her and us luck on what could and probably will be an extremely difficult next month and a half!

By the way, I have been struggling to come up with a fitting nickname for Fantaye since Fantantrum doesn't really apply anymore. If anyone can encompass the concepts of: a daredevil going 100 mph all the time, with strong will and reckless abandon, into a clever nickname, please post it in the comments. Thanks! (Julie thought Fantraction would apply for the next month and a half, but hopefully no longer than that)!

Tony