I need to have surgery on both of my hips and I need to have it soon.
We don’t have a surgery date yet, but his next opening is mid December.
This means I’ll miss out on another summer. (One because I was in a brace from an earlier hip surgery, one because I was having chemotherapy treatments and my central line was still inside me. It couldn't get wet.)
The surgeon told us that a double osteotomy is the last option we have.
If my hips dislocate, there is nothing they can do for me.
He will cut both of my femurs and reposition them (green square).
He will also reshape both hip sockets (blue circle). And, he will place a small screw in both femur heads to make sure they don’t grow out the wrong way (red arrow).
[this is a ‘normal’ hip x-ray, not mine]
Last time, I was three years old.
I don’t remember it.
This time, I’ll be seven years old and I will remember it.
Mum and Dad (and those who were with me last time) are scared.
Last time, my pain relief didn’t go to plan and I was given an almost fatal cocktail of drugs. A code blue was called. I needed to be resuscitated. Luckily, one of the nurses was very determined and she did not give up on me.
Last time, I spent 10 days in hospital in Sydney, recovering from the surgery.
This time, I will spend another six weeks in a brace from my waist to my knees.
It will be hard to get around and I have to have special pillows in bed to support the brace. I may not be able to go to school when I have the brace on.
I become heavy and awkward to carry and I need special attachments on my wheelchair to support the weight of the brace.
I will lose muscle tone and weight. I will have an 18+month set back in my physical strength. This is on top of the previous surgeries and my cancer treatments. These all had negative impacts on my sitting, standing, walking and moving.
When my brace came off last year, I cried non-stop for over a week because of the pain and strange sensation of having to weight bare again.
Mum has Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from everything we have gone through together. She isn’t coping well at the moment. Dad is strong for her and I’ve been giving her lots of cheeky laughs and hugs.
We know we will get through this, but at the moment, we are sad.
#DextersReality #cerebralpalsy #PTSD #surgery #scared #love
After the first femoral osteotomy, Dexter struggled to breathe and a code blue was called : We Nearly Lost Him
Hurting Hips
Taking off the Brace
Brace Pain
Back From Hospital
A Braceless Day!
My Brace, and the Water Incident
So Awful
Cast Away
Purple-Legged Adventurer
Cranky
Dexter's First Month
Dexter's Vision
Dexter's Cerebral Palsy
Dexter's Cancer
Who is Dexter?
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