Post by Ceeje on Jun 11, 2008 17:00:36 GMT -5
I know a lot of you have wondered where I've been lately. So, here's the long story in one place so that I don't have to keep telling everybody. 
Back in the winter, my 13-year-old son, Koty, was diagnosed with "Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis." That big long phrase means that the growth plate (which is made of cartilage) in his hip bone was not holding the bone together.
Here's a picture:
It actually started out as knee pain last summer, that we attributed to his involvement in sports and just being an active kid. Then, his hip started hurting during basketball season this past winter. We at first just thought it was "growing pains" or just sports-related. It just so happens that he started making really bad grades at school (failing nearly every class for no apparent reason!!!), so I made his quit basketball and I took his skateboard away. The pain in his hip didn't go away and got worse. I took him to our family doctor and he too thought it was just "growing pains," but he ordered x-rays anyway.
The x-rays came back and that was the first time I heard the big four-word phrase that I didn't understand. We then went to a specialist who confirmed that it was the big four-word phrase. This time, I had them write it down for me. Koty was put on restricted activities and ordered to used crutches when he *did* have to move around. The doctor hoped that the growth plate would start doing its job and the bone would fuse back together if he kept his weight off it. If he fell, he would fracture his hip and have to have a total hip replacement -- at 13 years of age. The only other option was surgery. On the way out the door, the doctor told us we need to go back to our regular doctor and have some bloodwork run because sometimes other illnesses go along with this.
I hit the internet and started doing my research and quickly got scared out of my mind. SCFE only happens in 1 in every 100,000 kids. It's usually in kids between the ages of 10 and 15, and the cause is still unknown. There are many possible causes, but there's not one thing that the doctors can point to every time and say "That's what did it!" The pain usually starts in the knee and, when the SCFE is at its worst the pain finally moves to the hip. The only solution is surgery to put pins in the bone to hold it in place. Of course, the surgery has very serious potential complications including bone death.
Our specialist (and the doctor we consulted for a 2nd opinion) could only confirm what I had found out. But, he did have one ray of hope for me. Koty's SCFE was caught early, so there was a chance that it could heal. So, we determined to wait it out and hope for the best. It turned out that Koty's bloodwork did come back irregular. He has hypothyroidism. That could have been what caused this, but it's treatable. He has to take a pill everyday for the rest of this life, but that's not much.
First thing we had to do was withdraw Koty from school and home school him. Yeah, every kid's dream -- at home with Mom 24/7! We got through it though, and we actually got a lot closer.
Finally the 6 weeks of crutches and restricted activity was up. We went to the doctor. The bone wasn't healed. He would have to have surgery. I had been preparing myself mentally for that. I'm just the type of person who hopes for the best, but plans for the worst. Before we knew it, it was the day of the surgery.
I was fine until they handed me the likelihood of success form. Right there in the pre-op room, with Koty just 2 feet from me, I had a flashback to February of 2005 when I'd had to sign a similar form for my mom's brain aneurysm surgery. Before I knew it my eyes flooded with tears and I had to bite the inside of my lip to clear them. I couldn't let Koty see me cry. I scribbled my name across the line, took a deep breath, wiped the corners of my eyes, and turned back to face him. His dad had great timing and cracked a silly joke. We all laughed and before we knew it it was time for him to go back. We walked with him down the hall and watched his gurney wheeled through the double doors.
They'd told us the surgery would take two hours. We went to the waiting room to count the minutes, but found the preacher and Koty's Sunday School teacher waiting for us. They began talking about the kids and church and the time went by quickly. I didn't even notice, at first, when the 2 hours came and went. Finally, the doctor came in. The surgery had been harder than he expected, but it had went well.
I was the first person to see him after the surgery. He was crying because it hurt so bad. That was something I wasn't prepared for -- seeing him in pain and not being able to do anything about it. You don't really think about worrying about "pain management" as they call it, for a 13-year-old boy! He stayed in the hospital longer than the doctor has said he would, but finally Koty got to come home.
It's now nearly 2 months later. We've gone through physical therapy and have went from using a walker to crutches to just one crutch and are now down to using a cane. Koty still has a limp, but that is supposed to go away in the next few weeks. There's a 10% chance that it will happen in his other hip, but if his hypothyroidism is kept under control maybe it won't happen. He'll have to have x-rays every 3 to 4 months until his 18 to check on it. He'll find out in July if he'll be able to play sports again. So, for the sake of my football-loving kid (he already has his NFL career planned out!), please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
So, the moral of the story....
1. Don't shrug off your kid's knee or hip pain as "growing pains"!
and
2. Things do happen for a reason. This will be the only time in history that a mom is glad that her son was failing school! If Koty's grades hadn't started dropping -- okay, they plummeted! -- then Koty would continued playing basketball and skateboarding. He probably would have fallen, fractured his hip, and faced a lifetime of surgeries to fix it.
Thanks for listening. It felt good to get this out.
Back in the winter, my 13-year-old son, Koty, was diagnosed with "Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis." That big long phrase means that the growth plate (which is made of cartilage) in his hip bone was not holding the bone together.
Here's a picture:
It actually started out as knee pain last summer, that we attributed to his involvement in sports and just being an active kid. Then, his hip started hurting during basketball season this past winter. We at first just thought it was "growing pains" or just sports-related. It just so happens that he started making really bad grades at school (failing nearly every class for no apparent reason!!!), so I made his quit basketball and I took his skateboard away. The pain in his hip didn't go away and got worse. I took him to our family doctor and he too thought it was just "growing pains," but he ordered x-rays anyway.
The x-rays came back and that was the first time I heard the big four-word phrase that I didn't understand. We then went to a specialist who confirmed that it was the big four-word phrase. This time, I had them write it down for me. Koty was put on restricted activities and ordered to used crutches when he *did* have to move around. The doctor hoped that the growth plate would start doing its job and the bone would fuse back together if he kept his weight off it. If he fell, he would fracture his hip and have to have a total hip replacement -- at 13 years of age. The only other option was surgery. On the way out the door, the doctor told us we need to go back to our regular doctor and have some bloodwork run because sometimes other illnesses go along with this.
I hit the internet and started doing my research and quickly got scared out of my mind. SCFE only happens in 1 in every 100,000 kids. It's usually in kids between the ages of 10 and 15, and the cause is still unknown. There are many possible causes, but there's not one thing that the doctors can point to every time and say "That's what did it!" The pain usually starts in the knee and, when the SCFE is at its worst the pain finally moves to the hip. The only solution is surgery to put pins in the bone to hold it in place. Of course, the surgery has very serious potential complications including bone death.
Our specialist (and the doctor we consulted for a 2nd opinion) could only confirm what I had found out. But, he did have one ray of hope for me. Koty's SCFE was caught early, so there was a chance that it could heal. So, we determined to wait it out and hope for the best. It turned out that Koty's bloodwork did come back irregular. He has hypothyroidism. That could have been what caused this, but it's treatable. He has to take a pill everyday for the rest of this life, but that's not much.
First thing we had to do was withdraw Koty from school and home school him. Yeah, every kid's dream -- at home with Mom 24/7! We got through it though, and we actually got a lot closer.
Finally the 6 weeks of crutches and restricted activity was up. We went to the doctor. The bone wasn't healed. He would have to have surgery. I had been preparing myself mentally for that. I'm just the type of person who hopes for the best, but plans for the worst. Before we knew it, it was the day of the surgery.
I was fine until they handed me the likelihood of success form. Right there in the pre-op room, with Koty just 2 feet from me, I had a flashback to February of 2005 when I'd had to sign a similar form for my mom's brain aneurysm surgery. Before I knew it my eyes flooded with tears and I had to bite the inside of my lip to clear them. I couldn't let Koty see me cry. I scribbled my name across the line, took a deep breath, wiped the corners of my eyes, and turned back to face him. His dad had great timing and cracked a silly joke. We all laughed and before we knew it it was time for him to go back. We walked with him down the hall and watched his gurney wheeled through the double doors.
They'd told us the surgery would take two hours. We went to the waiting room to count the minutes, but found the preacher and Koty's Sunday School teacher waiting for us. They began talking about the kids and church and the time went by quickly. I didn't even notice, at first, when the 2 hours came and went. Finally, the doctor came in. The surgery had been harder than he expected, but it had went well.
I was the first person to see him after the surgery. He was crying because it hurt so bad. That was something I wasn't prepared for -- seeing him in pain and not being able to do anything about it. You don't really think about worrying about "pain management" as they call it, for a 13-year-old boy! He stayed in the hospital longer than the doctor has said he would, but finally Koty got to come home.
It's now nearly 2 months later. We've gone through physical therapy and have went from using a walker to crutches to just one crutch and are now down to using a cane. Koty still has a limp, but that is supposed to go away in the next few weeks. There's a 10% chance that it will happen in his other hip, but if his hypothyroidism is kept under control maybe it won't happen. He'll have to have x-rays every 3 to 4 months until his 18 to check on it. He'll find out in July if he'll be able to play sports again. So, for the sake of my football-loving kid (he already has his NFL career planned out!), please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.
So, the moral of the story....
1. Don't shrug off your kid's knee or hip pain as "growing pains"!
and
2. Things do happen for a reason. This will be the only time in history that a mom is glad that her son was failing school! If Koty's grades hadn't started dropping -- okay, they plummeted! -- then Koty would continued playing basketball and skateboarding. He probably would have fallen, fractured his hip, and faced a lifetime of surgeries to fix it.
Thanks for listening. It felt good to get this out.
