Thursday, April 15, 2010

Update on Scott: His Left Hip


Hi all. It has been way too long since our last posting. Unfortunately it seems the right time to post is when we come back from the Doctor or hospital :( Since the last posting Scott has been doing great and growing into a fun and happy little boy. He started walking at 14 months and is quite a destructive force. He likes to flip thing over and toss them out of his way. However, we noticed a little hitch in his step and was not as stable as he should. We finally got an xray on his hip and it showed a difference in development from the right one. His doctor wanted to get more detail so he scheduled an arthogram.

Scott had the arthogram on his hip this morning (xrays with dye for better contrast - requires general anesthesia). The test went well and Scott was a trooper. The test confirmed the doctor's suspicion that Scott has a misformed left hip socket and ball (top of femur). This was likely caused by lack of blood flow when Scott had his infection in the hospital after his heart surgery. His cartilage and everything else looks good. The doctor's opinion is that nothing should be done now, monitor Scott every 6-12 months going forward and then do surgery to correct the problem when he is much older - like 12! There should be no pain associated with the hip, but he will likely have a limp. We will just have to see how severe it is and how much it restricts his mobility and activity.

While Scott was anethesized during the test the doctor noticed that one of the tendons to that hip was very tight (as is common with this type of issue) so he cut the tendon to loosen it and reattached it. We hope this relieves some pressure on the hip and gives Scott greater mobility. We'll see what happens over the coming days and weeks.

The silver lining is that we won't have to deal with a cast any time soon.

Hope all is well with all of you,

Phil, Mindy, Will and Scott

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