So, today found us back at Stanford a little early. Originally we were scheduled for next week, but she’s been kicking her brace off more and ore due to increased pain, so we got her in right away.
Thanks to the iPad, she was plenty entertained, and had no problem waiting and holding still for her x-rays.
It was a major relief to see that nothing scary was happening, and and that she was still intact.
Even though we’ve been through this several times at this point, there is still that little voice in the back of your mind that whispers, “What if this is it? What if it finally broke?” Sometimes I fear that voice will never truly go away. But today is not that day! 🙂
So, this x-ray scared me at first. The graft at the distal end looks SCARY. Its all dark and looks like a mess… but Dr. Hoffinger assured me that it wasn’t bad. He explained that when we talk about healing fractures that you have “nonunion” which means that it just isn’t healing. Then you have “union” which means that it simply has healed. Then you have what Amy has, which is a “stable fibrous union” which means that it has healed, and is solidly together, but not in a bony way. It’s not as good as complete union, but it’s together, so that’s positive.
Can we celebrate the top One More Time! WOOT!
The rest of her tibia Dr. Hoffinger has dubbed the “evil” part of her leg. Accurate, lol.
As far as the bone stimulation, he feels we are nearing the end of that road. He isn’t sure that there is a point to continuing, and that we may have gotten all the healing we can get. But, he’s also not sure. So, we’re going to continue it (we’re in month 7) and he’s going to contact Exogen to see how long we should continue, if at all.
Overall, he is pleased. As far as her pain, he agrees that it is caused by the brace, so he wants to try adjusting and squeak out another 6-8 weeks out of it. If we can’t, we can’t. We’ll jump that bridge if we come to it.
The good news? She’s probably getting her ankle back! Dr. Hoffinger feels that we have enough stability and enough growth that can allow ankle movement. But he wants to wait another two months if we can. Fingers and toes crossed, hopefully all will continue to hold stable.
The best part is this though:
Today, Amy is having a good, pain-free day. Those days are always the best.
