Whew! A "dent" vs. a break

Mary's ankle was still hurting a lot this morning, she didn't look good, and she had no appetite so Daddy called the doctor. The pain was localized so the nurse said it might be  broken and she said to come in so Dr. Scott could look at it. Mary had x-rays taken then I met them for the doctors appointment.

Thank goodness it is NOT broken but rather "dented". Dr. Scott said the denting isn't good and it will feel like it is broken. He showed us the x-rays to show how you could see that the lower portion of the bone was reacting quite a bit to the fixator and the fall.

Right above the bulge on the left side you can see a small indention in the bone vs. the smooth angle on the right side

He doesn't want to do anything about the "dent" in the bone. He actually wants us to continue the PT with the ankle and knee even though it will be even more painful now.

Then he moved on to a conversation about how the bone is showing it is getting "tired" of the fixator. So he is going to remove the blue wires to see if that will help give the bone a rest. That will be on Thursday, August 30. He promises it will be his first case at 7:30 since it is so simple. We asked if it would be possible to remove the blue wires in his office vs. under general anesthesia but he said she would feel it too much and wasn't comfortable doing it without anesthesia. He did say he will try to talk the hospital out of giving her an IV and just use the mask since it will be so short. However, he will take the opportunity to do some Physical Therapy again.

He wants us to take a full 10 days of the new antibiotic because there is so much reaction from the lower part of the bone to the fixator. He had been prescribing 5 days the two previous times she took an antibiotic to "knock down" the infection.

A funny moment that made us all laugh was when Mary learned the 4 blue wires are really 2 blue wires that stick through her bone and stick out on both sides. If I could have had a picture of that look...

He did show us how well the area of new bone which is near her knee is filling in and he is VERY happy with the progress.

Close up of the new portion of the bone filling in

Then he moved into a conversation that Mommy and Daddy didn't like. He said if over the next month we keep having problems he will remove the fixator and put on a cast from her thigh down onto her foot. He said it would be good for her foot but wouldn't be good for her knee. Mommy and Daddy don't like the cast idea because a cast is hot, hard to move, prevents moving her knee or ankle, causes muscle atrophy, etc, etc. We don't feel like we have had too many problems but he is seeing how much the bone is reacting and that we have had to move onto the 2nd antibiotic and there are only 3 before you run out of options. I would choose a fixator over a cast any day but it may not be my choice.

The last thing Dr. Scott did was to remove one of the 6 struts that we used for lengthening so the fixator will be less weight bearing and her leg will become more weight bearing. We have the strut so we can check once in a while to make sure it would fit back on meaning the rings haven't migrated too much. We can also put it back on if need be which we may for a couple of days because Mary said the rings wiggle more without and cause her ankle to hurt.

Strut hanging off

Strut completely off

Mary was really uncomfortable today. Tonight 2 times when she went to stand up she had intense throbbing that made her sit right back down. So per Mary's suggestion she may be starting school tomorrow back in her wheelchair. Ironically, the crutches that she was dying to use on the first day of school resulted in the regression. Oh well, I am so thankful it is NOT broken!!!