Broken Ankle Scare

So Lydia climbed up onto Nathan & Logan's bed about 3 weeks ago.  Normally, she needs help getting up the ladder into their bed (it's a loft bed), but she got up to the rung that was second from the top all by herself.  Usually, she'll yell at you and say she wants to get down and wait until you get her down.

This time, however, she yelled at me and said "down" but when I turned, she was hanging off of the side (the side without the ladder) and she let go right before I could tell my legs to move.

Needless to say, my heart skipped a beat!

The result was some screaming, and a very swollen and purple-ish ankle.  She wouldn't walk on it for about 3 1/2 days.  We actually took her in since she would scream every time she would step on it.  They did an X-ray and said it was probably just sprained and to keep an eye on it.  The doctor said we should bring Lydia in again if she didn't walk on it by the next Monday (which was about 2 or 3 days later).  The very next day, she started to walk on it again.  Funny how it always works that way, isn't it?

Here are some pictures:

 

You can't see it very well in the picture, unfortunately, but right under and behind her ankle bone was black and blue and purple, then faded to a yummy looking greenish blue.

 

You can almost see it a little better here.  You can kind of see the swelling in this picture right behind her ankle bone.  She never swells up for anything, and if she does, the swelling goes away really quickly.  Her ankle got pretty big and stayed that way for several days.  I didn't think she could get swollen.

While we're on the subject of health, here's an update on mine...

So far, nothing confirmed yet.  My muscle biopsy results were normal, which was good, but frustrating as well.  I was kind of hoping to have an answer, and I really felt like we were on the right track.  I still felt like the metabolic muscle diseases were where we should look, so Tyler started doing some reading.  Then he found something on the Muscular Distrophy Association website about metabolic diseases of muscle that sounded kind of similar, so he sent it to me.  I looked at it and then looked a little deeper.

I began reading - and it was about me.

I decided to keep looking at stuff and I realized that I was on to something.  There isn't any symptom listed that I don't have, and I don't have anything that isn't part of that disease.

It's called Carnitine Palmityl Transferase (Type II) Deficiency.  Carnitine Palmiyl Transferase is an enzyme that helps to break down and utilize long-chain fatty acids in the production of energy.  If this is truly what I have, that means that my body can't handle the long-chain fatty acids, so I have to reduce my fat intake and make sure that the fats I do eat are short- and meduim-chain fatty acids, so that my body can make them into energy for my muscles.  This means eating more fresh fruits and veggies, and more carbs.  Not sure how I feel about that since exercising has always been hard for me, and eating more carbs and less fats (which usually means less protein) most likely means more pounds.  I need to find the best balance of carbs and the right kinds of proteins so that I can exercise and feel good and lose weight and all of that stuff.

Then maybe I can stop taking all of this everyday:

 

Isn't that sad?  That pink cup right there is about 2 1/2 inches tall, and that toy beeper is about the size of a real one... just to give you a perspective.

Crazy, isn't it?

I would LOVE to be able to get rid of some of those pills...  Especially the prescription ones!  Those ones are the most expensive ones we have to buy, and it would be nice to not have that expense.

I will keep everyone updated as we find out new stuff!