Philadelphia -Always the Unexpected

7/21/2012
Gideon and I arrived in Philly on Thursday and are staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Camden New Jersey, our home away from home.  The plan was to see both Dr. Z and Dr. VanBosse on Friday establish a plan and head home on Saturday.  Well-not exactly how it turned out.  I had big concerns in 2 areas.  First his right leg- the old hardware is still in place since January of 2010.  His femur is extremely bowed and causing him some pain.  The hardware should have been removed by 1 year.  Anyway we have been on the waiting list for surgery since last October.  So after 2 trips to xray Dr. VanBosse is concerned but wants to compare these xrays immediately following the original surgery in Cincinnati.  Although I had provided them with these xrays back in October they can't find them.  So for now the plan is for surgery in november and to plan on serial casting for the feet 2 weeks prior to the surgery.  So we come 2 weeeks prior to surgery for casting then a week for surgery and another week after.  So potentially a 1 month stay in November.  Hope I can take family leave.  The other concern was the arm that we had serial casted in cincinnati.  This did not do much good.  The problem was that the OT's did the casting-and they are not very aggressive- and they did not use plaster casts-they used soft casts.  So Dr. Z wanted to cast that arm again but also cast the right arm so my poor boy is in casts on both arms.  We will stay for 10 more days and have these casts changed on Monday, Friday and the following monday.  He is pretty miserable.  He throbbed in pain most of the night and has been pretty sore all day.  It will be a long 10 day for us but also for Tim and the kids back at home. I am on vacation and we had planned on taking a  2-3 day trip with the kids, now Tim will have to do it by himself.  As I said not what we expected.  So please pray for us and for Tim and the kids.  I trust these doctors and know they are doing what is best for Gideon-He is such a mighty warrior!  There was a young man here who had spine surgery for scoliosis and isn't moving too well.  After spending time with Gideon he told me that Gideon was an inspiration to him.  He was very moved about the way Gideon takes everything in stride and always with a smile.  My little guy is an inspiration to me too!