Hope Trivia

A quick guessing game: Before you scroll down any further, can you guess what is depicted in the photo below?
a. Ted's new blue sledgehammer that has toes
b. An ancient Tswana artifact we found in the back yard
c. Hope's broken leg
(now scroll down)




If you guessed (c), you are correct. I got a call a week ago from the school nurse that Hope had fallen from the jungle gym and bruised her leg, asking permission to give her Tylenol. By the time we got there to pick her up, she would not put any weight on the leg, but there was still no actual bruise to be seen. By the next morning she was still in a great deal of pain, but still no bruise. We took her to the doctor who ordered an x-ray. We were told there was no fracture and she would be walking on it by the end of the weekend. Five long days (three of which we had sent Hope to school encouraging her to try to walk on it) and five almost sleepless nights later (because she would continually wake up in pain), we called the doctor back. He sent us to an orthopedic specialist who examined Hope's leg, looked at the EXACT same x-ray, and said "Of course it's broken" and pointed to the spot on the x-ray that we were told was a blood vessel the first time. He immediately put her in a full leg cast for six weeks. She picked the blue color herself - see below. Thank goodness the pain is nearly gone, as you can tell by the smile on her face. However, her frustration with the limitations of the cast is high. I have to say she has been an absolute trooper given that she went almost a week on a broken leg without the cast. She went back to school today for the first time with the cast and did well, but was thoroughly exhausted when she got home, and slept the rest of the afternoon. School is out for the year on Friday, so fortunately most of the six weeks will take place over Christmas break.


Despite the major diagnostic error, we have been very impressed with the medical system here through this process. We called, got an appointment the same day, waited in the waiting room for about 5 minutes, and the doctor himself came to call us back to the exam room. He later sent a text message to my phone asking how she was. When I called back after she was not getting any better, the receptionist said the doctor wasn't in so I should just call him on his cell phone. I think I responded by saying something like "Are you serious?". And, I should add that for the WHOLE experience, office visits to two different doctors, x-rays, putting on the cast, buying crutches and pain meds, and everything else, cost us a total of around 300 dollars. I have no idea what the right answer is to the health care situation in the States, but the simplicity and low cost of the experience here suggests to me there has to be a better way to do it.