Good News From Dr. Esposito :)

Dr. Esposito just called and gave us a good report on Molly's X-Rays. He thought her Humerus (upper arm) was almost completely healed and we should be able to take the splint off in another 2 weeks or so. It has already been 4.5 weeks, so I guess we can make it another couple of weeks. He though the Tibias looked straight and saw some healing on the back side of the osteotomy (break) sites. He said that often if there is any bow that the front side of the bone tends to have trouble healing. If she has not had significant healing in another 4 weeks (2 months post-op) that we will look into getting a bone stimulator to improve healing.

He thought that things looked good enough to try some water therapy, assuming that Molly could tolerate it without pain. We will probably jump into the hot-tub tomorrow and see what happens. We can try some weight-bearing in the water, but not on the land for another 2 weeks or so.

Molly has been having tantrums today and it is hard to know what they are about. Everything has become a negotiation and she seems to want everything immediately and always her way. I suppose a lot of this is her age and a little of this is her personality. Her feistyness makes life very challenging, but also very entertaining. She has been working very hard on coming up with as many delay tactics for bedtime as possible, which has been exhausting. We have slowly been eliminating them from her repertoire and tonight was the first time in a while that she went to bed without a lot of battles.

She got a pair of Crocs (shoes) yesterday and they have been a new favorite thing. She has been without shoes for over a month due to the fracture and then the surgery and I think she is really enjoying being like the other kids. Our neighbors all just got Crocs, so I think it is especially nice that hers are exactly like her friends.

She is using the potty a couple of times a day generally when she needs to poop, but still does not seem particularly interested in making it a daily routine.

Molly's X-Rays Today

We had a very busy day today. We had 4 women here from Early Intervention to put Molly through some diagnostic testing. We are trying to apply for services for Molly in hopes of getting both some in-home help as well as an Aide for Preschool. They had a psychologist, pediatrician and PT here to test her. She tested above average for language, just below age level for fine motor and at an 11 month level for gross motor.

I was starting to question whether I jumped the gun and scheduled her surgery sooner than I should have. Today she complained of pain in her left leg and then pointed right where the non-union (unhealed fracture) was. Well, we had X-Rays taken today and both the Tibia and Fibula (two lower-leg bones) have unhealed fractures. Poor thing.

She did amazingly well during her X-Rays. She didn't cry at all and stayed still while they took the films. It is amazing how far she has come at such a young age.

We have scheduled her surgery in Omaha for March 24th. I am now feeling thankful that it is as soon as it is. Her spirits continue to be good.

Top View X-Rays, the leg on the left (with my finger) is her right leg:


Side view (again, her right leg is on the left in the picture). You can see fractures of both bones on her left leg (right in the picture). Click on the picture to see a larger view: