Today I made my first visit to the pediatric ER... Did you know MO Baptist had a separate ER for kids? I didn't until this morning.

Yesterday G put a mattress on the floor of J's room so that we can start to transition her out of her crib. Last night M & J were playing on it while G and I were cleaning up after dinner. All of a sudden I heard crying and M telling J "It's ok, let's go to mommy". M told me J had hit her head, but I noticed her limping after that. Well, soon after that we gave the girls a bath and got them ready for bed. This morning, after they got up and I fed them breakfast I noticed that J was still limping. She didn't complain about her foot or leg, but she just wasn't walking correctly. It seemed like she was walking on the outside of her right foot, and it was worse when she had shoes on.

Well, when G got up around 9:45 I mentioned to him my concerns about J's walking. He watched her walk and agreed that we should probably have it looked at. So, I packed J into the car and by 10:30 J and I were at the ER. The nurses and Dr were very nice to us, we got checked in and waited for the Dr to return from a delivery upstairs. J got used to her surroundings and ate Apple-Jacks. The Dr came in and poked and twisted J's feet, legs and hips. She watched her walk and determined that it probably wasn't broken, but she may have twisted it. She told me that when toddlers break a bone, they don't normally put any weight on the foot. We decided not to put J through x-rays, and to watch it for a couple days. Luckily our first visit to the ER was probably un-necessary.

I always second guess myself with these types of things. I don't want to waste anyone's time by going in when it's not necessary, but I don't want to be neglecting the signs either. I almost called our pediatrician's after hours number before we went in. That probably would have been more productive, but I just never know.