On November 4th, our family left for a long trip. After a Saturday stop in Grand Rapids, we continued to North Carolina. Stephen worked at a job site that week, and on Friday morning we all went down to Georgia for Stephen's cousin's wedding.
That Saturday (the 12th) was a long day for everyone. There was the wedding, of course, in which Stephen played violin and SD cheered; and a reception that lasted well after dark.
SD was pretty much his normal self, though he was getting tired. After the reception, he was pushing the baby stroller around (one of his favorite ways to help), and then suddenly laid down on the ground and refused to walk any more.
We figured he was just exhausted, so we mostly carried him around as we got back to our hotel.
When we got back to the hotel, SD still didn't feel up to walking, so we let him lay on the bed and watch Swiss Family Robinson. He likes making the animal sounds for the animals in that movie.
That night, SD woke up almost hourly, crying out "ow"! But he always went back to sleep quickly.
The next day, we went to the Georgia Aquarium after church. We noticed that SD didn't want to put weight on his right leg; we thought that he may have slept on it funny. So we borrowed a stroller from a cousin and let him stay in that all day.
He liked these fishes.
SD was held at various times, but he did seem rather uncomfortable. He preferred the stroller.
Although he perked up a few times throughout the day, he mostly just acted exhausted. We figured that we had been on the road for over a week, he hadn't slept well, and he may be coming down with something.
One of the last things we saw were alligators. SD has a strange fascination with this particular animal. Even though these ones were white and barely moved, he really enjoyed watching them.
The next day SD still could not put weight on his right leg. We took him into a local urgent care. They did some X-rays but could not detect any fractures or anything. They recommended we see a pediatric orthopedist when we got back home.
Each day on our travels home, SD improved a bit. We got home on Wednesday, November 16th. He saw his regular pediatrician the next day. The pediatrician believed it was some bacteria that had settled into the joint and that he would probably continue to improve by himself. He was walking just fine by the weekend.
As of now (December 1st, 2011), the doctors are unsure whether this leg problem was caused by his Leukemia. Like many parents, we always wonder whether we should have done something differently. Should we have done a blood test? Did the X-rays cause the Leukemia to start? However, questions like that have no answers. We are where we are, and God knows what He's doing.
