Zeke's Medical Update

Here's how our day went and what we found out at Gillette Children's Hospital in St Paul MN:

We arrived at the hospital at 1pm on Thursday. We checked in and completed all the current paperwork.

First they checked us in and gave us a buzzer just like at Olive Garden so we know when it's our turn in the next area. Then we went to Height and Weight. If I remember right, Zeke was 3ft 7 inches and a healthy 56 lbs.

Next came X-rays. Brit, Tay & Sophia stood behind the glass window with the technician and I stayed right beside Zeke. They did lots of X-rays of his hips, knees and legs. They're really good so the whole process only took about a half an hour. The picture shows a couple of X-rays of his hips. You can see the bones, screws, plates and also the protective shield placed during the X-rays and then removed. When the kids were looking at this particular X-ray, Zeke asked why there was an egg in his heart. "Well Zeke," I responded, "That's not an egg and that's definitely not your heart!"

 Then we were sent back to the waiting room until our buzzer rang to meet with the Orthopedic doctor. Once we were called to our consultation room, we met first with the nurse. Then we waited.

Then the Physician's Assistant came in to visit with us.

 Then more waiting.

Eventually, the orthopedic doctor came.

 The doctor checked his legs/hips throughly, watched him walk and asked me lots of questions. Here are some of the things we now know:

• Zeke's bones are now completely healed after his surgery and they look great.
• He still doesn't have full range of motion in his knees (90 & 98) but the range that he does have is great for the time frame since surgery.
• We have another appointment scheduled for August 25th at Gillette. They will take X-rays again and then determine if we & the surgeon think that the wire holding his kneecaps in place needs to be cut. If it does, then that will be done during the procedure to remove the pins and plates.
• The surgery to remove the pins and plates will take place sometime in Sept/Oct '11. It's a minimal procedure and should only require Zeke to stay overnight at the hospital and shouldn't cause him too much discomfort or time to heal.
• Zeke no longer has to wear his AFO's (braces for his feet/legs) all the time. In fact, he can even walk without them if he is stable enough. He will still have them on for most of his long distance walking.
• The orthopedic doctor wanted Zeke's AFO's readjusted to give him a bit more flexibility so we headed to the ATD department and waited some more.

 Zeke decided to give Taylor a chiropractic treatment while we were waiting.

Once the AFO's were readjusted by heating, cutting, forming and adjusting, we were free to go!

The whole clinic visit took 3 1/2 hours.

We left at 4:30pm, just in time to catch rush hour traffic all the way back across town!

We got home around 9:30pm last night.

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