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 has to wear braces on his legs and a wedge pillow between his legs 24/7 for 6 weeks and then we can gradually begin letting him bend his legs again.  Because this surgery required breaking major bones, it was very painful for him.  He did really well through surgery but the first few days in the hospital were hard and we struggled to interpret his behaviors to figure out if he was in pain, bored, frustrated, etc.

Waiting to go back

After surgery

We finally were able to get his pain managed well and went home 5 days after surgery.  Since then, we've been amazed at how well he has recovered.  He quickly got tired of sitting at home with us and is happy to be back at school with his friends and teachers.  We haven't been able to wean him off of the narcotic pain killers as quickly as we expected, but he's been happy and alert as long as we keep him on a consistent schedule.

Home!

Meds for leaving the house for 3 hours...

Using the swing grandpa made him

We were able to get him fitted for a preschooler sized manual wheelchair a couple weeks after surgery.  The one we have right now is a used one another child outgrew we will use while we struggle to get medicaid to cover an appropriate seating system for a new one for him.  This one works great for him right now though.  I love seeing him at "peer height" at school and that he's able to sit at the preschool tables and participate with his classmates at eye level.  He's even starting to figure out how to push himself a few inches here and there.  He loves holding onto the wheels as we push him (which leads to very dirty hands!).

So, he's starting a new school year with new hips, new wheels, and a great attitude.