We had a doctors appointment today with the Orthopedic Surgeon. It had been a month, which is the longest we have gone since Derek was hit by a car before seeing a doctor. (For information on what happened to Derek, click here.) I was anxious and excited to see what he had to say. Technically, we only had an appointment with the doc looking at Derek’s bones, but I knew the other doc, the one in charge of his foot and the skin graft, would be interested to see how he was doing.
The story starts out the same as always. We were late, and so I had to rush up to the office with four kids in a wagon. Once we got there, we got right in, and they took Derek to get an X-ray of his leg. I went with him this time, leaving the other three alone in the waiting room. Crazy, huh? Actually, I wasn’t planning on doing that, but it just happened. They were all so well entertained by
Here are the four kiddos waiting to go into the room after Derek got his X-rays done.
the toys they had there, I don’t think they noticed I was gone. Thankfully we were only gone a few minutes. Derek is quite the expert at this now. When we were done, we waited for quite a while. I saw the doc come out of a room shaking his head and uttering under his breath about how unbelievable it was. I am assuming there was a patient that had something really wrong with him or her, so I decided to be very patient. When the kids got tired of the toys and started asking when it was going to be our turn, I told them that some other kid had a bad injury like Derek did, so we have to be patient for their sake. That actually worked. All three boys looked at me for a second, and went back to playing, and never bugged me again. I was both impressed by that and a little worried. Worried, only because of the profound impact Derek’s injuries from being hit by a car have really had on the others. I just hope the effects are not of the damaging kind. I don’t believe so, but I still worry…I am their mom after all.
Here they are in the little room waiting for the doc to come in. They were really well-behaved and patient.
We finally got ushered into the little room where the doc was going to meet us. A few minutes later, the nurse practitioner came in with his X-rays. I have to figure out my scanner to get the pictures for you, so stay tuned for these, but they were amazing. She showed me the breaks on the day he got hit by a car. The tibia was broken right in half, and the fibula was broken partially, but also bowed way out. It looked as bad on the inside as it did on the outside. She then showed me a picture of them last month. You could see significant healing, but some jagged edges and still some bowing. Today, all the jagged edges are gone, the bowing of the fibula is almost gone, and you can see he is about 90% healed. It is amazing how well he has healed in such a short period of time! I was elated, and so was Derek.
He looked at the pictures and asked, “Is that my bones?”
Me: ”Yep!” You are getting all better! Look!”
(He looked up at me and smiled real big) ”I getting better, Mom! Is that my foot?” He was pointing to the part of the X-ray that showed the bones in his foot. He was right, and we told him so.
Then he asked, “Is that my butt?”
Me: ”No, buddy, that’s your knee.”
Derek: ”Oh. OK.” Then he went back to the toys and his brothers.
The nurse practitioner left, and told me the doc would be in soon. While we were waiting, sure enough, the other doc came in just to peek at Derek’s foot. He was very happy with what he saw, and told me he was healing wonderfully. Yay! I was hoping he would pop in. He is a great doc, and he was true to form. He just put my mind at ease.
Then the bone doc came in and looked at the X-rays. He was happy with what he saw, and basically gave me the same rundown as the nurse practitioner. Then he started to tell me about the
Ashley just “hanging out” while we wait.
reconstructive surgery and the tendon for his big toe. I started to get nervous, but then I actually heard what he was saying. Apparently, the toe is not pulling down too significantly. With such extensive scarring as Derek has, the scar tissue will contract and pull the toe upwards, counteracting any natural tendency for it to pull downwards. At this time, he sees no reason to do the surgery at all! Wow!
I asked him about sports. Derek is very dextrous and has amazing eye-hand coordination, so I wanted to be sure he was not hampered in any way by this toe or foot. According to the doc, the effects would be nill to minimal. I was so excited, I almost skipped out of the office. That might have seemed strange, especially while pulling a wagon full of four kiddos, but I might not have cared too much. What a great visit! Who knew, after going through so much such a short time ago that we would be at this point. Derek has healed so well. He is just as active now as he as before the accident, and he doing all the same stuff. He still has a nasty scar on his foot, but there is starting to be tissue underneath the skin again. Not much, mind you. It is still very hard to the touch. The amount of tissue under the skin is still so small, it feels like the skin is laying directly on the bone. That is impossible, of course, because skin cannot grow on bone, but the layer of tissue is
Here is a picture of Derek’s foot as of today. What a difference!
very thin. That being said, there are still some spots that are starting to feel a little softer. It will become more and more so over the next 12 – 18 months. The skin tears easily, as well. He rubs it off almost daily, causing it to bleed, but a scab forms, and we just put a Band-aid on it and move on. I tried getting him to wear socks, but that only lasts about three minutes, so I eventually gave up. Both docs laughed when I told them that and shrugged their shoulders. I guess that means it is OK.
I thank God for the great news we got today. While the mental and psychological effects will linger on for a long time ,if not for forever, at least the physical effects are almost completely gone. We don’t go back now for another 4 months. Amazing, isn’t it?
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