New Hips and New Wheels
On July 31th Wesley had surgery on his hips. His left hip, primarily, was slowly dislocating (called a sublexed hip). Because his muscles pull out of balance with each other on his joints and he doesn't stand or walk as much as typical kid his age would, his femurs were nearly straight on top rather than bent like yours or mine. This not only makes standing, walking, etc. more difficult, it also can be extremely painful as they don't stay in their socket. So rather than waiting for it to cause him additional pain and do more damage to his pelvis, we agreed to go ahead with his first major orthopedic surgery. To correct his sublexed hips, they essentially broke his femurs and screwed them back together at the correct angle so they will stay in socket better. Thanks to some advocating by his physical therapist, we were able to try Wes in a splint instead of needing a full spica cast (waist to ankle cast with a bar between his knees). He h...