Two More Fractures and Some Worrying....

Hi everybody!

So, we went to Sonya's orthopaedic surgeon at AI duPont today for a 3 week post spica cast removal checkup and Sonya tacked on 2 more fractures to the break tally.

Two days ago while Sonya was cruising the family room floor and playing with her sisters she pulled open the bottom drawer of our end table, stuck her hands on the edge of the drawer and slammed it shut on herself. The result... a left broken index finger. Only at the time it didn't look broken nor did she mind me touching it after she finally calmed down after her 20 minutes of crying, so I figured it was ok. Well, upon arrival at her ortho's I noticed it was much larger (swollen) than her other index finger. Her ortho confirmed that it had broke. She has been using it and bending it so they are not doing anything for it, and there really isn't much that they could do anyway (there are no such things as finger casts and there's no way she would keep a finger splint on!). So then we go to leave and as I am placing her into her car seat she shrieks out in pain and starts "the cry"! I opened the hatch to the van and laid her flat in the back to assess what happened. Both legs were kicking *sigh of relief*,right arm flailing, and left arm limp. Uggghh! We went back into the hospital, straight back to the casting room where Sonya's ortho was and got right back in to see him. By this point Sonya stopped crying "the cry" and was just mostly whimpering. Then she miraculously starts using her arm again! What?! After a quick check over her ortho decided it was most likely a micro fracture in her left scapula. Again, not much can be done, other than pain meds, keeping an eye on it and babying it. She's been using her arm still, but has not gone back to crawling at home.

So, now for the reason we went to the hospital in the first place.... to check up on her femur. It is looking good, had xrays done and it is healing nicely. Dr. Kruse is currently not interested in rodding surgery for Sonya, so I will be seeking a second opinion at Dr. Shapiro's office at The Kennedy Krieger Institute next to Hopkins, as I feel that the time is near for rods. Now for my other concern... she has been going back to the butt scoot move that she was using just prior to the fracture of her femur. She puts tremendous pressure on it by tucking her previously broken leg under herself and then using the other leg to maneuver around as she is in a sitting position. This most certainly is causing her femur to bow more and I'm sure that she will be headed for another break if it continues. I feel like a nervous cat watching her move about like this. Sonya's ortho, Dr. Kruse, wants us to give physical therapy a call and have her start some gait training.

On a lighter note, this Friday I will be taking Sonya with me to her pediatricians office where there will be two med students in training. I have told my pediatrician that whenever she has students who want to learn about OI, that I would love to share Sonya's case to help educate and promote awareness of this type of dwarfism. This will be the 4th time that I have had the honor to discuss OI with soon to be medical professionals! I'm excited to get to teach this as a part of these students pediatric studies. Under average circumstances they would have maybe read a short paragraph on it in their textbooks and that is if they didn't just skip over it because of it's rarity. While it is most likely that Sonya will be the only case of OI that these students see in their lifetime, who knows for sure. Hopefully, if she isn't the last case of OI that they see, they will certainly think twice and have the knowledge of brittle bones disease before suspecting abuse on the next OI child that comes their way. I'm so happy that I have this chance to make a difference!

Well, that is the update for now. I will have more news soon since tomorrow is appointment making day! Have a great week everyone! Oh and here's a beach photo I managed to miss!