Molly is doing very well and coming up with new tricks by the day.
We bought a used hot tub for Molly's water therapy and it arrived on Wednesday. We have all been very excited for it to come and have really been enjoying it. There is a seat shallow enough for her to sit at and she can stand on the other seats. It seems like it is going to be perfect for her!!
I spoke with Dr. Esposito (the Orthopedic surgeon in Omaha) and we discussed the X-Rays we had taken in December. He thought that her femurs looked good. The FD rods are expanding nicely. The top of the rod is still extended beyond the bone and is in her bottom tissue, but she hasn't been complaining about it and he said that this was better than it being sucked up into the bone. Her tibias are bowed and the right more than the left, which we already knew. She has a partial "non-union" in her left tibia with some "bridging", which means that she had a fracture (I think from sometime around June) that has not completely healed. The "bridging" means that there has been some healing, but it should have been healed by now. She has not been complaining about pain in that leg, so hopefully it is not causing her a lot of discomfort. The right tibia is bowing and now it is just a wait and see as to when we re-rod her Tibias. It looks like she is big enough now to have the telescoping (F-D) rods in her Tibias, which should give her more time with the next set of rods. You need 4mm in the growth plate area and she is measuring at 6mm.
The plan now is to wait and see how she does. She is walking more, but she is also walking with more of a limp than before. As long as she is tolerating walking and weight bearing and she isn't complaining of pain and doesn't have a fracture we will hold off her surgery. He felt that we will be able to splint her if/when she fractures a Tibia and schedule surgery within a weeks time. It is hard for me to play this waiting game, but the longer we can wait before her next surgery the better things will be for her. He said that her bones looked much better and more normal than they did for her last surgery, which should make things a lot smoother for surgery.
I discussed my anxiety about going through the post-op recovery that we went through the last time and he felt that it would be a lot better this next time around. He can use a tourniquet to prevent the blood loss she had during the last surgery (because her femurs have rods), so she won't need a transfusion. It should also be better because there will be fewer osteotomies (bone cuts) and fewer bones involved. Molly had elevated PT/PTT blood test results (these have something to do with bleeding and clotting? I think) and therefore they were not able to give her an epidural for that initial recovery period, which would have been so helpful.
We need to be sure and have X-Rays taken from both the top and side view in the next 3-6 months in order to better determine how her Tibias look and to help Dr. Esposito come up with a plan. I hope that we get to the point that we decide to schedule these X-Rays and don't have to go in because of pain she is having.
Dr. Esposito also asked how her arms were. This is the first time that has come up. It makes me a bit anxious to think that we might also have to address fractures and rods in her arms. We will have to keep our fingers crossed that we are lucky enough to avoid this completely - I can wish at least :). He said that you can rod the Humerus (upper arm), but there aren't rods that are particularly effective for the lower arm. It sounds like a lot of the arm complications occur after an arm fracture. When the arm heals and there is a bow, it will simply get worse from there or can have non-union complications etc.
I am sure I will remember more from my discussion with Dr. Esposito. I'm glad to have that all down on "paper" for our records :).
Here are a couple of videos...
Molly in her new hot tub CLICK HERE (poor quality, sorry)
Molly says "Cockadoodledoo" CLICK HERE
"I put ketchup on my sandwich, it tastes good"
"I sit HERE" as she pushed the foam out of the way that I had placed there to prevent her from sitting there. This is one determined little girl!
"Daddy toot...pfffft (her sound affect)"
"My name is Lisa" (and holds her hand out to shake hands)
"My name is (Mommy, Daddy, etc."
"Call Livie...(on plastic phone)... Hi Livie, come to my house and play with toys"
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