Ortho Update

As you know, J's appt was yesterday for his foot. We ended up waiting well over an hour to see the Dr, and J was being the "normal" 2 yr old, if you know what I mean ;) Several times I asked my husband if he wanted to just leave and reschedule for another date. But we waited and I'm so glad we did b/c the Dr is awesome. We got in the room and explained to the Dr what it was we were seeing in his right foot and ankle. He asked me to take off J's shoes, socks, and shorts. Oh J loved this. Thought it was time to get undressed so he even tried to pull off his diaper and his shirt! LOL! So we were in a small exam room and the Dr asked me to walk J over to a wall and J walked to the wall, knocked on it, and then ran into the Dr's arms. Then the Dr put J in my lap and examined both legs really well and also did a flexion exercise that seemed like it bothered J quite a bit :( When he finished he told us that J has moderate femoral anteversion/torsion in his LEFT LEG. LEFT LEG!! My husband and I sat there with big, silly, confused faces. We only saw the problem in his right foot and thought the left leg was perfect. The Dr told us that he does indeed have a tibial torsion in the right leg, but his left leg shows tibial torsion AND femoral torsion, which makes it worse than the right leg. He told us that the reason why we notice the right foot more is b/c it's below the knee only and that's why his foot curves in so much. He also noticed before I was even able to tell him, that J limps when he walks. He told us that the limping is b/c the left leg is slightly shorter than the right b/c of the femoral torsion. He told us that this is why J doesn't like to walk far distances b/c it definitely affects the hips and he is probably having a little pain when he walks too far :( He then asked me how big of a baby was J. J was 8lb 6oz. He told me that the condition is fairly common in bigger babies b/c of the way they were squeezed in the womb. D was dealing with gestational diabetes when she was pregnant with J, so I am sure he probably grew faster than her uterus could stretch and was pretty cramped up in there. The Dr told us not to worry b/c the bones are still soft and it's an easy fix, surgery is very rare in these situations. PHEW!

So the plan right now is to give him 4 months to straighten out. The 4 months could be just what he needs and the Dr said that he never does anything before the 2 yr mark b/c the bones are still so soft and they end up doing more damage than good. So we will watch him for 4 more months and he has to wear shoes with a strong sole and good ankle support during this time. If in the 4 months, his legs don't get better, he will have to be braced. The first attempt will be with a DB bar brace at night, for 4 months. Yeah. I seriously don't think J will love that ONE.BIT!! He likes to sleep curled up. I can't imagine having to sleep with my legs like that :( For 4 months! And if that doesn't work he will have to wear a brace similar to the one beneath the DB bar. Finding shoes to fit over that will be a chore! So we are praying that his legs straighten out considerably in these next 4 months b/c we don't want to have to go through the whole brace ordeal if we don't need to. Oh and the braces will be to correct the tibial torsion which has to be corrected before age 3. The femoral torsion is harder to correct, but he has until age 5 for it to straighten. I have faith that the femor will correct itself in time!

So that's an update on Mr. Crazy Legs for you! Now I need to continue to hold on the phone for the IRS, hang out in the backyard with J, and then get on the phone with my mom to discuss plans about this hurricane. I'm going whereever she goes b/c I am not staying here if we are going to be slammed with tornadoes!!!