update

First of all, thank you everyone for your words of encouragement. It's been a pretty rough day for us and the positive comments helps.

So after I posted last Ethan and I had a nap. When we woke up I felt like a complete douchebag when I checked our voicemail and found that the doctor had called twice (I thought I'd wake up if the phone rang, I normally do). While I was checking the messages he called again so I quickly answered.

He said that he accessed the x-rays online via some server and looked at them with a doctor from Children's, discussing the images on their computer screens over the phone. He told me to prepare myself to go to Children's Hospital, that the doctor there really wants to see Ethan. The doc at Children's requested that we get another x-ray of his knees.

He still didn't tell me exactly what it could be ("I don't want to bombard you with too much information just yet") but he did say that at this point, the only thing that would prevent Ethan from going to Children's is if he has nutritional rickets. There are some bone abnormalities in his x-rays, so he definitely has something going on (although he did stress that the abnormalities were still in the more minor stage). If he does have rickets as a result of a vitamin D deficiency, then that is something we can treat out of his office. So he also wanted to get some more bloodwork done, to test for that. But, he said that Ethan could have a protein that is blocking his absorption of vitamin D, which would still be rickets but not nutritional rickets, and that is something we need to go to Children's to learn more about. Or it could very well be something more serious and at that point we would need to be seen by this specialist that he has lined up for us, who was ordering the extra x-rays. We went and got the second x-rays and round of bloodwork this afternoon (he didn't handle today's round of bloodwork as well as yesterday's, he screamed as soon as they tied the tourniquet around his little arm) and then went over to my parents' house for a little company.

So I guess at this point best case scenario is that I'm a crappy mom who didn't give her child enough vitamin D. I'm going to be sick if that's the case, but really that's what we have to hope for because he thinks that if it is that, then we could probably treat it quite successfully as he doesn't yet have bow legs or spine abnormalities and that means that it hasn't progressed too far. Worst case scenario is, I don't know... he still hasn't told me what else it could be, but he does seem concerned that it could be some larger condition.

I'm going to be more angry with the medical establishment than I already am if it's nutritional rickets. Ethan didn't take his vitamin D well and since he was such a colicky little guy, I really didn't want to force him to take it since it made him throw up and he had such a hard time without it. A nurse at the public health unit told me that while vitamin D isn't transmitted via breastmilk in usual doses, if the mother takes high amounts of vitamin D enough will be passed through. She recommended a certain amount (I think it was 2000 IUs?) and I took that and didn't worry about giving Ethan the supplement anymore. If that information was wrong and that caused all this... ETA: I've spent some time with my friend "Dr Google" and I have to say I think it's unlikely to be caused by a deficiency... he eats two eggs for breakfast every day, and eggs are a source of vitamin D. He loves his dairy products. And he does go outside for the time they recommend- he loves playing outside. We're often at the park, or on a walk, or whatever.

Anyway. It makes me sick that with all the doctors we saw none of them caught this. None of them took his head measurements, or felt his soft spot. But thankfully we finally got a hold of a good doctor. I guess we'll probably hear from him tomorrow morning, since he seems to get results really quickly.

Thanks again everyone