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If you're new to this blog - you can catch up on the story of Quinn's feet here. Start at the bottom of the page.
Well, the doctor still wants to wait a few more months before doing surgery - to give Quinn's heel a bit more time to grow. He said he could do it this winter, if we wanted, but he would prefer to wait until early spring (wants us back in February) - and get more xrays to see how the heel has grown. He actually said there's no hurry to do this, but that most parents prefer to have it done before the child starts kindergarten.
The name of the surgery is: calcaneal sliding osteotomy. I googled it and stumbled upon pictures of what they'll actually do. Yuck.
Basically, they'd cut his heel bone - insert some more bone into it - causing it to do what it's supposed to. They would also have to tighten the ligaments, since they are stretched from his heel falling down. We could get bone from Quinn's pelvic bone - or from a bone bank. The doctor highly recommends using a bone bank - the pain from recovering from the pelvic bone thing is awful.
He would do both feet at the same time since, "It's easy for kids his age to just move around on their bottoms during recovery." Also - then we'd only have to do the surgery once - and go through recovery once.
The doctor we're seeing is:
Robert Bielski from the Univesity of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. You can google him if you want. He sounds really good.
He did explain some of the other options for surgery - and why he wanted to do this one. Also, he stressed and stressed that the number of surgeries he actually performs on kids like Quinn is actually quite low - usually "typical flatfoot" kids don't require surgery, but Quinn's case is very severe. Quinn's feet are not actually flat when he's not standing on them. He has a very nice arch, but then he stands, the bones mess things up, and he's got flatfeet. (Most of his surgeries are on children with cerebral palsy and spina bifida.) Of course, he then did explain that he has done this surgery on typical children and it has been very successful - he just wanted to make sure I understood that he doesn't chop up every kid that walks in his door, I guess.
Recovery would take about 4 weeks - or less.
I told him I'd be seeking a second opinion and he happily gave me the xrays and notes from our visits. He even recommended a doctor from the group that we were referred to - and told me not to say anything about this surgery - and to not share the notes from this last visit so that doctor could come up with his own conclusion.
The name of the surgery is: calcaneal sliding osteotomy. I googled it and stumbled upon pictures of what they'll actually do. Yuck.
Basically, they'd cut his heel bone - insert some more bone into it - causing it to do what it's supposed to. They would also have to tighten the ligaments, since they are stretched from his heel falling down. We could get bone from Quinn's pelvic bone - or from a bone bank. The doctor highly recommends using a bone bank - the pain from recovering from the pelvic bone thing is awful.
He would do both feet at the same time since, "It's easy for kids his age to just move around on their bottoms during recovery." Also - then we'd only have to do the surgery once - and go through recovery once.
The doctor we're seeing is:
Robert Bielski from the Univesity of Chicago Comer Children's Hospital. You can google him if you want. He sounds really good.
He did explain some of the other options for surgery - and why he wanted to do this one. Also, he stressed and stressed that the number of surgeries he actually performs on kids like Quinn is actually quite low - usually "typical flatfoot" kids don't require surgery, but Quinn's case is very severe. Quinn's feet are not actually flat when he's not standing on them. He has a very nice arch, but then he stands, the bones mess things up, and he's got flatfeet. (Most of his surgeries are on children with cerebral palsy and spina bifida.) Of course, he then did explain that he has done this surgery on typical children and it has been very successful - he just wanted to make sure I understood that he doesn't chop up every kid that walks in his door, I guess.
Recovery would take about 4 weeks - or less.
I told him I'd be seeking a second opinion and he happily gave me the xrays and notes from our visits. He even recommended a doctor from the group that we were referred to - and told me not to say anything about this surgery - and to not share the notes from this last visit so that doctor could come up with his own conclusion.
And well, I know this is a big deal. And maybe I'll be a little more freaked out come February, but really, I'm pretty relaxed right now about this. I feel much more informed and prepared with more questions. I also feel very confident in this doctor. And will still seek a second opinion and ask more questions. But honestly, I think since I read so many stories from other moms and dads about what they are going through medically with their own children, that this doesn't seem like that big of a deal.
1 comment:
I'm so sorry to hear about the surgery. I think I may have stumbled across the same pics when I googled the title to see what the heck you were talking about. Ouch. (By the way, your blog entry was like fourth or fifth on the list.) How's Quinn? Does this hurt him? Our thoughts are with you. Surgery is scary business. I have no doubt, however, that you and Quinn and the rest of the family will get through this splendidly.
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