Two years later....

Two years without a new post!  I may have to go back and enter a few retro-actively...

Things have been great for Lydia over the past two years. No surgeries, and she's done really well, until about 6 months ago when she started experiencing pain in her foot and sometimes in her hip too.  Some days it's OK, other days she comes home from school early due to the pain, hopping on one foot, using a cane, and sometimes even a wheelchair. So as I speak we are in Florida to see what Dr. Paley thinks we need to do to alleviate the pain.

After looking at her and a fresh set of x-rays, Dr. Paley wants to re-position her foot to point in a more normal position. Currently it points downwards a bit, and can't bend more than 90 degrees in relation to her leg. This means she can't walk with her weight squarely on her foot, all her weight is going on the pad and none on the heel.  This entails cutting the tibia at it's lowest point and angling it up a bit.

He said we can do this in conjunction with her second and final tibia lengthening, or separately.  Doing it together would mean one surgery not two, but we're not at all prepared for a 7-month lengthening so we will have to think it through carefully.  He's also concerned about her hip, and has ordered a catscan to further evaluate it.

I am torn between relief knowing another surgery is not imminent, and trepidation about the one that is surely coming before too long. It's so hard -- harder than I thought it was going to be, but I won't dwell on this as that is a slippery slope that I have been down before and this is not the place for it.