Limping along....

lol...Pun intended. But at least I can laugh about it right? :) We've not had any real incidents since the last update...but he's been pretty stiff for about a week and has limped a lot and just complained that it hurts.

We went bowling yesterday...he really enjoyed that.

Sorry for not updating in so long, just nothing much to update about really. Next appointment is just a little over a month away and we'll just go from there and see how xrays look then.

Thanks for still checking in on us.

What mortified feels like...

So remember my post saying that I was afraid of jinxing Dalton? Yeah, well....I did. So from here on out..if I have no posts, then just assume that he's doing ok.

Hunter has had a cold that has turned into a nasty sinus infection and he's feeling rotten so I took him to the dr this afternoon. While we were sitting there Hunter kept crying a little because he felt so rotten. Dalton was being SO good..sitting right in the chair beside me watching tv when all of a sudden, totally out of nowhere he starts screaming and falls out into the floor. He's having one of those stupid spasms in his leg. He's screaming and crying and if I try to pick him up out of the floor he's screaming "don't touch me!!!!!!!" (but not being ugly, just not wanting to be moved bc he's in pain.) I just keep rubbing his face and telling him it's ok while the entire waiting room looked at us. I know that half of them thought he was just showing his tail. I finally looked at the few people right there at us and said "he's got a problem with his hip and it causes his leg to have spasms in it and there is nothing we can do..he just cries and it will eventually stop." Now had we been home I expect it would have passed quickly, but considering we were surrounded by staring strangers it lasted a good 10-15 minutes. My cheeks were literally burning red...I was so embarassed. I sent Hunter to get one of the ladies in the office to come and help and she asked what we needed and I said, fighting back tears, to please just get us out of the waiting room. So she ran and got a wheelchair and I just picked him up, still screaming, and put him in it and we got to the back and in a room and he finally settled down. Now he's just more sore and definetly limping worse.

And so it goes, I'm home alone with one with a sore leg and one throwing up w/a headache from a sinus infection. Woooooha!

Just remember, if Dalton's ok, then I won't be updating! LOL!!!

Doing pretty good....

I hesitate to even write that Dalton is doing good because I am positive I am a jinx. LOL! Other than having a limp and just a time or two of saying that his leg hurts he's done pretty well since last week. Last week (Mon-Thurs) he hardly limped at all...then he started limping on Friday and has limped, more or less, since then...but he's not complaining of lots of pain either. I know it's probably just one of the times that he's going to do good..I know that the pain is bound to find us again just due to the nature of perthes..but I'll count the good days as blessings and just be thankful!

Worth A Thousand Words

Look at that face....




After hardly any limping and pain this week he has limped all day...but he has felt good and jumped on the trampoline a pretty good bit. I hope he hasn't overdone it today! I guess bedtime will tell....Fingers crossed!

Dr appt update!

For the first time since this all started I really and truly feel hopeful about the situation. We saw Dr. Beckish again today. Today he was in no rush, he actually sat on the patient table and talked with us for a good 10-15 minutes about everything. When we first arrived he asked us what was going on and I explained about the spasms. He asked if they were waking him up...I said yes. He checked his ROM (range of motion) and he made mention to the resident that was with him that the it was further decreased by 20% internal and external by 10%. He wanted to take more xrays since we were there....he said they were more or less the same. He said that basically perthes was a "catch 22". On one hand, if we limit his activity he is not in as much pain but his ROM will further decrease, leading to possibly surgery to release tendons in the groin....on the other hand, by letting him be as active as he wants to be (running, jumping, climbing, bike, etc) that he will be in pain but it will most likely keep his ROM good. He said he would rather see him have a day or two of pain for every 2 or 3 days of good activity vs him become further limited in his ROM. This makes perfect sense, and I basically was reading the same thing to Joey last night off of the internet. He said that 10 years ago when he went thru medical school that you braced or casted every child but that now studies showed that in most cases one doesn't make any difference over the other. He said that in the years that he has practiced he has never braced or casted a child...traction, yes, but none of the other. He said, of course, every case is different and it's not to say that it could never happen but most likely not. We are quite pleased to hear this....but the only down side for us will be to deal with a pain increase for Dalton. He was a little more active on Saturday than he has been and Sunday afternoon and evening was rough. Three episodes of screaming with spasms and a very sore leg. He was going to write him a rx for v@lium but I told him about the Cl0nidine that the ped had written and he said to most definetly give that to him that he had no problems at all with that medication it would help him. I told him that I saw no difference in giving him 3 doses of motrin a day and he said if he had a spasm to give the motrin immediately and for 2 days following, otherwise not to give it to him if I couldn't see a difference.

So all in all I think it was a good appointment....we'll see soon enough how things go with allowing him to be more active. He's not been too active since his appt in Charleston earlier this month so we do look for an pain increase..but at least we know this will be normal and it's not necessarily a bad thing (meaning worsening of the disease). He also said that he would consider Dalton in the fragmentation stage...so the next stage for us would be that blood flow would return and then new bone growth...But it's a lengthy process so it could be 12-18 months before this starts.

We just ask that you continue to keep us in your prayers!

Suprise in the mailbox!

In the past week Dalton has received two nice suprises! On last Thursday the mail lady delivered a box to "Hunter and Dalton Land" and my great aunt Flossie sent the boys each a small remote control car. So sweet of her! She figured it was something they could do that wouldn't be too active for Dalton. They love them!! Thanks Aunt Flossie!!! Love you!

Then today we only had one envelope in the mailbox and it was to Dalton. I won't say who it was from in case they don't want to be called out on it...but they sent Dalton a sweet card and $20. Now Dalton loves him some mail but you can imagine his suprise when out popped a $20 bill. He kept "snapping" the money and saying "wooo hooo!" It was so cute. So very, very thoughtful of this person as well. We have sent you a card, but I want to say here too, "Thank you so much!"

The thoughtfulness of people just amazes me.

Dalton's appointment is tomorrow afternoon with Dr. Beckish. I'm going to see if we can get an answer to these spasms he is having...several things I have read talks about spasms and hospital traction for a brief time..but hopefully we won't have to go down that road. He just wasn't having the spasms when he saw Dr. Beckish the last time, nor the dr at MUSC for that matter..so it's just something that needs to be brought to his attention. I'll update tomorrow evening sometime.

I'm debating on calling Dalton's ped ortho in Greenville to make an appointment for early next week. Sunday he had that awful spasm at lunch and then his leg was sore and he was stiff on it...Sunday evening he had two bad spasms that he cried out with. I know the dr said to expect pain, but this is not exactly the impression I had of the pain. I was thinking aching pain, sore when walking, but screaming out is not what I took him to mean. Granted, he's not school age (and we homeschool anyway...) but I'm to a point where I am afraid to leave him in Awana, Sunday School, or choir by himself. It would absolutely scare his teachers to death if he had one of those spasms. The screaming is just horrible. He shakes all over and breaks out in a cold sweat with them! So I know they are bad...Dalton's a tough boy..it takes a good bit of pain to make him cry, so for him to be literally screaming is pretty bad.

I think I will call and get an appointment, if nothing else for peace of mind. Gah, and speaking of peace of mind...Sunday I googled "perthes and leg spasms" well one of the first articles I pulled up was this one. So I am frantically digging out copies of his blood work and finally found the answers I was looking for. His white blood count (wbc) was high by the standards set by the hospital, but as I dug further and further online I found out based on age what is a normal wbc and Dalton was WELL within normal range!! (For the record, a 4 year old can have wbc as high as 15.5 (thousand) and be totally NORMAL! and Dalton's was only 12 something and he was at the dr for croup too!) WHEW! I was one sick feeling Mama for a short time Sunday. I kept saying to Joey that "surely they wouldn't have missed something....surely". It did make me feel better to see that the article was from Germany in 1983 which we know medicine has come a long way since then. But still...ugh...shiver!!