What Is This?

Last night Evan limped into the living room, complaining of pain in her left leg. She sat down next to me on the couch and let me look at it.

No redness, no swelling.

Hmmm.

"Honey, did you fall down? Did you bump into anything?"

"No, Mommy. It just hurts when I walk-- right here," she said, pointing to the top of her left thigh.

When I pressed on the area -- at first gently, then more firmly -- it wasn't tender at all. But when I tried to move her leg, Evan cried out in pain.

"Honey, it's gonna be okay-- we'll just have you rest that leg for a while," I calmly told her, hoping she couldn't hear a trace of fear in my voice.

While Ryan sat with her, I went online to see if I could find out what was going on.

After about 10 minutes, and reading of several frightening possible causes of "sudden acute pain in one leg," I think she has something called Transient Synovitis.

Why?

She has a cold (a respiratory illness is usually a pre-cursor).
She is in the high-risk age group for this.
Internal rotation of the leg causes the most pain for her.

If this is what's going on, then it should resolve in a week to ten days.

Now, some of you might think she's simply having "growing pains." This is unlikely, given that those usually occur in both legs, and do not inhibit mobility.

Also, I don't think this thing is what the nurse at her doctor's office thought it might be-- a swollen lymph node (there's no swelling or tenderness anywhere-- including the location of her lymph glands).

Of course there are the other possible causes-- the ones I won't even type here, because I'm tearing up just thinking about them.

Today, she can't even stand. And I'm worried sick.

We go in at 2:30 this afternoon to have her checked.