Long time no blog!

It's been over a month since my last entry. Dalton is still rocking along doing mostly fine. If he over does it (like lots of running, climbing at the park, etc) then he's really stiff afterwards. His nighttime pain is basically nonexistent right now and I hope it stays that way bc it is the worst it seems. We'll have PT week after next with ROM numbers and xrays are to follow. Then we should hear from Dr. S. and go from there. Fingers crossed!

Update from Dr. Standard (WOOOOT!)

Dr. Standard's assistant, Barbara, called yesterday afternoon about 4:45pm and said that Dr. Standard had reviewed Dalton's xrays and ROM #s and had asked her to call. She said that he said the following "xrays look good, ROM is GREAT! Will send RX for xrays to be made in our town the first week in December and for us to plan to see him in Baltimore mid-late January". I'm very pleased with this report! I'm glad Dr. S. is watching Dalton so closely. This way if something changes we should catch it quickly and can correct it by adding more PT or something in the mix. I don't know what he meant by xrays look good..don't know if they just don't look any worse or if he is seeing re-growth or what. But anyway..whatever he is seeing is keeping us out of surgery right now so I think that deserves a great big WOOOOOOT! lol : )

As far as Dalton goes he's still having some night time pain...maybe not as severe as it was a couple of months ago but it's still there. Today he's complained a good bit about his leg and I'm not sure why because he's not been overly or underly (lol) active either way..just about normal for him.

Thanks for continuing to check on us!

Awesome update!

We had PT yesterday and Mrs. Stacy measured Dalton's ROM and he is within NORMAL RANGES on all of his ROM numbers!!!! HOLLA!! Every single one was in a normal range. Internal rotation was about 5 degrees less than "normal" but she said that anything off 5 degrees was still considered normal. Our goal is to keep it in normal ranges now. He has xrays next week and I'll be sending those, along with his super ROM #s, to Dr. Standard. I'm tickled over his ROM but I know that his xrays could also bring us trouble if they look much worse. Hopefully that won't be the case though. I'll update once his xrays are completed or once I hear back from Dr. Standard.

Thanks so much for all the prayers! We appreciate them so much!

Couple of Videos

This video features my online pal, Sandi, and her daughter Rachael. Rachael had perthes and had an external fixator. This video also shows Dalton's super awesome hip doctor, Dr. Shawn Standard. Sandi was gracious enough to invite us to her home for a perthes pool party last month when we were up North for our appointment.





This next video I will never forget...Just after Dalton was diagnosed with perthes I was googling and came across this on You Tube. I remember so vividly watching this and just bawling my eyes out. Tonight as I was on You Tube trying to get the embedded link to Dr. Standard's video I came across this video again. I never put two and two together, but this video is of a child named Tanner and I have come to know his mom, Alice, through our online perthes support group. Tanner is an amazing little boy. What an awesome video!



As for us, still hanging in there. Dalton has his ROM measured next week and his xrays the first week in October. Praying for good xrays and an increase in ROM!

sir limps a lot

We are going on a month and a half or so of *NO* night time pain. ***knocking on wood*** I don't have any idea where it went or why but hey, we are sleeping so WOOOOT!!! He is still complaining of daytime pain...it's hurting or aching..he is constantly wanting to put it up on something bc he says it hurts. The limp seems to be more pronounced at times but he still keeps on going and playing for the most part. Some days he wants his wheel chair and he'll ride in it around in the house..I think some of it is just playing, but then there are some days that he truly is sore. Since Dalton is so young it's hard to get him to explain to me what the pain is like so I don't know if it aches or if it's sharp pains or a pulled muscle pain or pain like a "catch"...no idea and that's just frustrating for me bc I wish I knew how it felt for him. He's such a trooper though, so independent! Poor baby is sick right now, not sure with what..he started complaining this afternoon that he had a headache and I felt his forehead and he was warm and his temp was 101.3. I asked him later after giving him meds for the fever and headache did anything hurt and he said "yes, my leg right here" and pointed to an area on his right thigh. He is still complaining of some left leg pain. I haven't heard from Dr. Standard yet but we have a chat coming up on 9/17 so I plan to send him a copy via email of Dalton's latest xrays and let him see if he sees any issue in that hip or if it's just from him favoring it.

In other news, school is going very well for us. Dalton loves doing school and is such a bright little guy. He can be a handful at times but he is absolutely the sweetest little thing. I just love him to pieces. I wish so bad that he wasn't going through this with his leg that he could run and jump and play without pain like other kids his age, but I know there's a reason for it all.

Here's a picture of him making a little lapbook in school with the letter "Gg".

hanging in there

Not much to report...Night time pain is *(hopefully)* gone for now. He's only woke up like once in the past month with his leg hurting, BUT now he complains of daytime pain and needs to "take a rest" several times. Not sure which would be better..I guess since he's sleeping better it's better for it to hurt more during the day. The past couple of days he's complained with his left leg hurting too so I did email Dr. Standard to see if he could look at the last xrays to see if there is anything that stands out in his left hip. I think it's probably just because of him putting the majority of his weight on his left leg.

So that's about it...he at least seems to be no worse..guess that's a good thing.

Home, tired, & thankful

Thanks, Allison, for updating for me.

Basically everything is just what she said. He said the xrays were "looking good" but that's because he did one extra xray (abduction style) and said that his pelvis was still in line and not responding by turning due to the LCPD. His xrays don't look any worse than the ones 6 weeks ago. His ROM was down a tad but Dr. Standard wasn't too concerned..said that there will be days that it will be down, either due to inflammation, activity level, or whatever. He said we are in a "touch and go" situation that at any point we may have to intervene and that's why right now he wants to see us every 6 weeks. He did agree to let us have xrays done here and have them sent up to him along with a report from PT regarding his ROM numbers. Based on that we'll see if it buys us another 6 weeks or not. I told him about the misery that is the abduction pillow and he told me to try it some during the day...stretch him and put the pillow on and let him watch 30 mins of tv a couple of times a day. He asid even an hour on is better than none at all.

So as it stands he have xrays the first week in October. Dr. Standard and I will talk via phone or email and he'll decide if he wants us to come on to Baltimore for the tenotomy (he calls it soft tissue release..where they clip tendons in the hip area to loosen the leg up) or if we can wait it out for 6 more weeks. Right now our next appt is schedule for 12/7.

Just keep sending up prayers and good thoughts our way. We are definetly hoping to get out of this without any surgery at all!