Hip update

Andy typing today...

Just wanted to share a quick update on Tess' right hip. This is the same hip that was operated on two weeks ago, but didn't stay in (or near) the socket.

It was nice to have a two week break from when we last spoke with Dr. Novais. It appears as if the time away from Tess also gave him and his colleagues plenty of time to consider Tess' hip status in an objective way. It is clear that he cares a great deal for Tess and that he spends an unusually large amount of time thinking about her hips.

We sent him four pages of questions while he was at his conference in Brazil last week. After the answers were emailed back to us earlier this week, it was clear that Tess was not going to have surgery any time soon. Tess' right hip is just too deformed to do anything productive at this time. The correct option is to wait and see how Tess' right hip develops over the next year or two. The chances of a successful surgery now are very very small and the chance of doing damage that would be harder fix in the future are high. She needs to develop more bone before we decide on the next course of action.

Both Denise and I are completely comfortable with this decision. In fact, we both became comfortable after reading Dr. Novais answers to our questions before we even spoke with him yesterday morning.

We are happy to share much more information for anyone that would like to know more. I just don't want to post it here on Tess and Keillor's blog. Please feel free to email or call us with questions!

So what now?

Tess will have her cast removed on Friday, April 11th (which will be the 12-week mark for the left hip). It'll involve Tess wearing her pink sound dampening ear muffs that you've seen her wearing at Buffs basketball games and a loud cast saw. She'll be awake and it'll go quick. She'll most likely be uncomfortable when the cast first comes off only because her legs will be so stiff. About two weeks after the cast is removed, she'll begin physical therapy to get herself standing and walking.

Walking with a hip not in socket will cause a limp, but it will not cause any damage to her spine, pelvis or other bones/muscles at this age.

Tess will have a 3-month, 6-month and 1-year check-up on her left hip and at the same time the right hip will also get x-rays. We'll be watching how the right femur grows over the next year or two and that will help direct the course of the next surgery.

So there you have it. We're relieved to have a course of action (even though the course of action is no action at this time) and we're excited to get that kid out of her cast in a few weeks.

Back to regular blog programming tomorrow...