He has been complaining about his leg hurting and not being able to walk for a while now – at least a month, maybe longer. I have chalked it up to Chase being Chase. He can be a bit whiny sometimes… 
So Monday night he started it again, but this time he had tears and sustained them for a few minutes so I knew he wasn’t faking it. I asked him if it hurt enough that we needed to see the doctor about it and he said yes – he never says yes! So I said that I would make an appointment. I got him to narrow down exactly where it hurt and it was just under the patella (knee cap) at the top of the tibia/fibula. It stopped hurting and he was able to walk around after bath running and all. So I put them to bed and around 7:30 he woke up screaming like I’ve never heard him before – worse than when he split his head open or got a shot! I was holding him and couldn’t get him to calm down. He was coughing so hard I thought he was going to vomit, but wouldn’t take a drink or deep breaths. He was yelling at me that I was hurting his leg when I wasn’t even touching it! I asked him if we needed to go to the hospital and he yelled yes, yes! So I bring him downstairs and wait for Doug to get home (business dinner and he was already on the way home). Chase calms down and feels better by the time Doug gets back. He changed his mind about going to the hospital and slept the rest of the night without incident. I got a 2:30 dr appointment for that afternoon so I just had to pick him up a bit early from school. And when I picked him up he said that his ear was hurting so I was glad I already had the appointment. The doctor said it could be one of three things: growing pains (although he hadn’t heard of any that severe), juvenile rheumatoid arthritis or leukemia. He said he didn’t feel like it was necessary at this point to do a blood draw. He said to do some stretching exercises at night and keep our eyes open for any rashes, joint swelling (heat and redness). It the pain still persists in another month to bring him back for a blood draw.
Just a goofy pic of him eating Doug’s birthday cake:
