Hours passed. Blood tests, scans, worried whispers in the hallway. When the orthopedic surgeon finally walked into the room, the look on his face told me everything before he even opened his mouth. She needed emergency surgery. Immediately. It wasn’t growing pains at all. It was a severe bone infection — osteomyelitis — spreading fast through her tibia and dangerously close to her bloodstream. The surgeon told me that if we had waited even one more night, she could have gone septic. I felt sick.