Friday, December 21, 2007

Answer to Crossview-Legg Perthes

Crossview said "I was elated to first read about the no surgery part. Until I read the rest.... *sigh* So surgery will most likely still need to be done??

Still praying here! "


Well, honestly we don't know.  Right now, from what my untrained eyes can decipher of the X-ray, it looks like the round part of the femoral head is gone...that's the part that fits into the socket anyway.  The midpoint of the femoral head is slightly wider than the socket at it's present angle.   I think that I'll be able to post the pictures of the X-Rays when I get them in the next couple of weeks.  I'm not positive, but they are coming on a CD so it's possible.  If I can, it'll make more sense.


The concern is, how will the head regrow if it doesn't have the socket to shape it.  If it grows in round...no real worries...but if it is misshappen then we are looking at surgery.


We've always known that.  We just didn't want to do surgery before we HAD to do surgery.  And now for the first time this ONE doctor doesn't WANT to do surgery.  He's been the one since the beginning who has said, "I'm a surgeon, of course I WANT to do the surgery."  But to his credit, he is also the one to take it to the board and go with the consensus to wait and see.


And so, once again...we wait and see.  I did pray that the Lord would make it VERY clear what we are supposed to do NOW.  The surgeon NOT wanting to do surgery is pretty clear.


Hope that makes sense.


See you around...


 

Legg Perthes Update

Well...I got some news.


I talked to the nurse at Scottish Rite yesterday and she said, "Doctor says, No surgery at this time."


...


Yep...that's it.  No further explanation.  And OF COURSE, it's the Holidays...and OF COURSE, he has a family...and OF COURSE we have to let him enjoy his holidays...


So we'll have to wait to find out why the change of direction until after the first of the year.  I'm somewhere between giddy and terrified...


Just to clarify...the break down of the femoral head would have happened to this extent no matter what...the issue is more which surgery will we use during the regrowth phase.


Thank you for your prayers...keep 'em up.


See you around...

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Update on Legg-Perthes...

We had a checkup and X-Ray yesterday at Scottish Rite Hospital.  The degeneration of Bean's hip has gone farther than anything we'd hoped.  We are now in the C designation as opposed to B designation that early signs indicated in May.  At this time I don't know exactly what percentage of the femoral head is gone but the C designation means 50% or higher.  We also know that at least at this moment a portion of the femoral head is sitting outside the socket which could cause problems with regrowth if we can't get it tucked back under.


It looks like our year of wait-and-see has passed now and that we will be pursuing surgical options shortly.  I have no further information today.  We are waiting for a call back from Scottish Rite regarding possible plans of action.  At this moment I do expect that we will at least be looking at an MRI very soon and they actually spoke of an Arthrogram...which sounds like a more in depth scan with some sort of contrast dye injected into the hip.  The scans have to happen before any surgery is considered.  I will update as I research and as I hear more information.


As to Bean herself.  She has had no pain in months.  Actually the last 'pain' she had was after our day at Disneyland.  So this is quite a let down for her...she really felt that she must be much better because it didn't hurt. 


Please keep her in your prayers.  She is a very little girl with a very big heart and a lot of faith in God, but this is hard.  Very hard.  Please pray for peace to cover her and for us to be open to the BEST option for her in all of this.  There really are so many decisions to be made and it is very hard to even consider any of them unemotionally.  We know the Lord is here.  He has been here since day one and He is here now...but still we crave your prayers.


See you around...