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Kyle's Leg Perthes
Kyle's Leg Perthes One afternoon, after shopping, my son was sleeping in the Blazer. I woke him and told him to come and play with his 5 yr old sister and me. He got out and was limping. It didn't worry me as I felt he had slept wrong. I showed my husband when he came home and we decided that if he awoke and was limping in the morning that I was to take him to the Doctor. As you can imagine he was limping. I called the Dr and he examined my son telling us, " I think he has dislocated his hip." He is not exactly a Doctor, he is a Physicians Assistant (PA). We took Kyle for x-rays that evening and waited the next day for the results. I was horrified when my PA called personally and told us what was wrong with our son. His Orthopedic appointment was scheduled for a month away, I WAS NOT HAPPY!! Thank God that I have friends online who took time out of their day to help me in searching for any information on this disease. I was terrified, and so was my husband. I saw so many sites proclaiming the atrocities this disease perpetuated. I was BLESSED when I got the URL that sent me to Barb Kelly's Page. I acquired the phone number for Riley Children's Hospital in Indiana. The Doctor there made me so mad. He told me that my son was a classic case, had all the symptoms but he was only 3 and you had to be 4 to have this disease! I went home and called up the page for the Shriners. I got my paper work and thanks to friends and the Lord watching out for us. I found a Shriner in our town to sign the papers. I had an appointment in 2 weeks and we took our son for a visit. We were unprepared for the response we got. Everyone talked to us about this disease and the success they were having with their treatment. In the 2 hours were were in the Clinic, we had everything explained to us and were admitted to the hospital for "Surgery" the next morning! The surgery was to put our son in the cast. It was explained about the way that he had to be casted to maintain the continuity of the femoral head and that if his legs would not spread wide enough, the would clip the tendon and cast him. Thank God that he could and did spread his legs and that he awoke with no problems. Out little bullheaded child fought us on being on his feet, but in order to play with the LEGOS in the Physical Therapy room, used the walker and learned what he had to do in about 10 minutes and we were on our way home! It was hard, because my husband was now working out of state and was only home on weekends and I was unable to move my son about. I am disabled due to severe back problems and thankfully, the Lord once again provided for us in the way of friends to help us. We pushed him to move on his own and let him use the wheel chair for the first week or so. After that, we forced him to move on his own. ( We got tired of him running into all of us!!) After 6 weeks in the cast we went back and got his braces. Shriners lets the kids pick their casts and braces and he loved his. He wanted to keep the casts on, but was thrilled with the braces. I believe that he was in a lot more pain than we knew and it gave him some relief from the pain. More friends got involved at this point and we put my son on minerals and homeopathic's for circulation and bone maintenance. At the 6 week brace appointment, we saw the x-rays, his femoral head was half gone!! We are now waiting till August, 1999, to see his next x-rays. We know that he is doing well because he can do anything! We swim with him and he plays and is pretty normal. He loves to show off his braces and the folding of himself and his splits. All the Christians and all the Churches that are praying for him make a difference too. My husband, after staying the night before surgery in a hotel with out 5 year old, met a woman at immediatelywho was with a morning prayer group that met there, they immediatly started praying for him, and a man my husband has dealings with in his job, called his prayer group and they started praying!! I know this helps because everyone in my family has difficulty waking from anesthesia. Our Son did GREAT!!! And there was no need to clip the tendon!! Pray for him, and wait, I will keep you posted. Laura Smith
