absentee blogger here...
the latest is this:
Ezra had his tonsils out the week of Thanksgiving. He came through it with grouchy colors...things puke green Oscar the Grouch colors. I was expecting it though, but it was still hard :(
He is recovered now though, just in time for his p-flap to be built next week. He has phase two of the flap surgery on December 28. Just in time to be under this year's fully paid deductible. We are so thankful that it worked out that way!
Asa. We had his hip MRI and the nurse called last week with the doctor's report. Basically his whole pelvis area is a mess of tangled and deformed bone. This is most likely due to his congenital hip displasia not being treated in any way when he was a baby. The doctor will do an "open hip reduction" this spring. His surgery schedule is full until March or April.
They will perform the surgery and basically use whatever bone and cartilage is in his pelvis to rebuild his hip socket and then put his femur back in. He will wake up in a SPICA cast and be basically immobilized for six weeks. At six weeks we go back and they will remove the cast, do another MRI under sedation to make sure everything is growing and healing normally. They'll put another cast on for six more weeks.
12 weeks of casts. 12 weeks of immobilization. Losing muscle mass and tone. And having new hips. That means that we will learn to walk all over again and have some major PT ahead of us in the 2nd half of the summer. And it also most likely means we will not be braving a kindergarten classroom next fall. (that is a long time away, but that is my gut feeling right now)
I think the time will be difficult. Asa will not be able to walk or do much of anything for himself. We will have a wheelchair for him and will probably have to adjust some of the arrangement of our home to accomodate his equipment and needs. And the boy will be very heavy. He is a very heavy 42 lbs now and the cast will add probably 20 lbs to that. I think I need to rejoin the Y and start working out!
Oof. Are they anticipating a full recovery for Asa? I'm trying to get my hands on the file of a boy with "hip and knee issues" (unilateral), and I'm trying to get some ideas what that might mean.
ReplyDeleteBest wishes for Ezra's upcoming surgery!
I think their goal is complete normalcy in his gait and function. One possibility once they get in there would be to shorten his femur. That leg is already shorter than the other one, so he may need a lift in his shoe at some point. But the femur shortening is really a last resort if they need to do that to make the repair work.
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