Orthopedic surgeon

This morning was Bobbi's big first meeting with Dr. H., the orthopedic surgeon that we've been waiting for quite a while now to see to talk about the potential of major surgery to give Bobbi the chance to be significantly more independent in her mobility. Very interesting meeting, and useful. While we were hoping that this meeting would also give us some idea of the timing of Bobbi's surgery, that did NOT end up being something on the agenda yet at this point.

How far do those legs rotate anyway?

What we did come away with is a plan of action for our next step (getting Bobbi to the point where she can walk in a straight line in a walker so she can be evaluated at Gillette's gait lab), and a few other simpler information-gathering (mostly imaging.) Most encouraging to Bobbi, was that he didn't even for a moment entertain the option of not going ahead with surgery. His questions were more related to what she is hoping to accomplish, and how to best get the most information ahead of time so as to make the most effective use of the surgery. Bobbi has been so set for so long (nearly the last year, I think!) on having surgery this summer that we were very proud of the calm way with which she took the news that it will most likely be later than this summer that the actual surgery happens. I think she was just so relieved that he said it really was an option for her that it helped to diminish her disappointment about timing!

One of the more interesting things to me, and in an odd way, a very hopeful one, is what Dr. H. told us about hip rotation in the socket at birth. We all start out with our hips joints at about 45 degrees (relative to what, I'm not sure). As we do weight bearing and start walking, the joints naturally rotate during the first three years of life down to about 10-15 degrees. Bobbi, who did not do any of that in her first three years, has one hip that is still at 45 degrees, and one (the worse leg), that has been pulled to 60 degrees from a combination of off-kilter muscle signals from the cerebral palsy, and then positioning that was thus more comfortable for her. This was exciting to me, because I'd thought all of the rotation had come from muscles pulling, and I was concerned about the degree of pulling that she would have to continue to fight against after the surgery. Knowing that most of the wrong rotation is more a matter of never getting properly rotated in those early years, and less a matter of muscles makes me more optimistic about the potential for the long term viability of the effects of the surgery.

It also makes the timing of Bobbi's surgery less of a complication for the summer. The bathroom project (which, by the way, took a bit step toward reality this weekend as Matt finally got a very rough set of drawings completed, so it's off for a few of the bids that we need!) can be completed, and fully completed, before her surgery. Baby's arrival will not happen right in the middle of the time that we'd be aiming for surgery, but Baby will not be a brand-newborn when it happens. And depending on a variety of factors, we're considering pushing the garage out until next year (though part of me is still hoping that something amazing would happen that would make us think it would still be good to do this year, as the thought of another winter with our 10 square foot mudroom and no wheelchair ramp is a little daunting!) but the wonderful thing about living life on Someone else's timeline is that we just keep walking ahead toward what we think needs to happen trusting that He will make it clear to us, when we need it to be clear to us, what the next step will be, and WHEN it will be.

Here's what ten square feet of mudroom looks like! That person on the left? He's teetering on the edge of the stairs down to the basement.