The trip to Shriner's went well. On the 1-1/4 hour drive I was not sure what Youngest Brother was thinking, he was not talking or singing with the CD. I didn't know if I should again mention that we are only looking at his hand and feet today. But part of me was worried that his translation of looking and the Dr's translation of looking would be two different things.
Of course he didn't think he was hungry when we left the house at 11 but when we arrived at the hospital at 12:10 he was suddenly very hungry! He was not all that impressed with my snacks...but we did survive.
Anyway we got x-rays. His feet and hands were poked and prodded...
Yes! his feet are ticklish!
Yes! all the bones are still in there!
Yes! his whole thumb is inside there!
Yes! he has his fingers in there too...up to the first joint!
Basically the doctors were very cautious about giving us too much hope for reconstruction of the feet, there are so many things to go wrong. BUT they took medical photos and are sending them out to other doctors and said they should have a good idea of the possibilities... next week
The one doctor told us that the first options that come to mind are amputation or reconstruction.
Problems--amputation is so final and we know that dealing with 2 prothetics for life will not be easy...do-able but not easy....plus, what if they come up with new therapy for nerves etc 5 yrs down the road?
Reconstruction--removing the scarring and putting the feet into walking position would leave a very large area to be covered by plastic surgery. There is another treatment of slowly stretching everything...nerves, muscles and tendons, but there are a lot of unknowns with that...and we would hate to put him through months...years of treatment and still end up with prosthetics.
His hand looks like the easiest treatment...but for now I am praying that some wise advice will be forth coming and we can see this boy running and jumping someday
We also saw the prosthetic people and they re-enforced the part of his prosthetic that was breaking and had many ideas for improving his prosthetics if we take that route. He also stands very crooked when he stands upright and they can improve that too.
We tried to explain things as we went along, but were not sure how much he was really understanding. When we got home, the other kids were asking what we found out... I started explaining and Little Brother put his foot up on a chair and made a slicing motion along his leg and motioned that we could put his foot right back into place.....I PRAY you are right, young man.
So if you think about it this week, pray that the right Dr will see the information and have advice for our doctors.
I have no words. Praying for wisdom.
ReplyDeleteencouraging news about his hand! would it help to tell him that the doctor her saw today worked on Natalie's hand?
ReplyDeleteWill pray for you. My cousin's child was burned badly at about 12 months when she crawled over a heating vent just as it released steam. It has been pretty amazing to watch what they've done for her over the past 25 years. Multiple surgeries, of course, as her own skin grew in other areas that could be grafted, but still amazing.
ReplyDeleteRuby