ROM Improvements!

We are continuing on the path to better range of motion!!  FINALLY - and I know it sounds like I'm being melodramatic here, but it truly felt for a while like we were never going to get back to 'normal'.  I know that when your child has a disability or disease, they say that your definition of normal changes.  I never accepted that for Ava.  I read all about Perthes Disease and the stories other parents told and I thought to myself, "There HAS to be a better way. There is no way that she will never be able to play sports or run or be a kid.  That just cannot be."  I did SO MUCH RESEARCH and read and read and read.  We chose Dr. Standard in Baltimore because he offered us what nobody else that we saw could - a chance for our child to be a KID.  A normal kid.  Not a kid with wheelchairs and walkers and crutches and restrictions.  A kid who, after some really rough months of surgeries and treatments, would have a normal body and normal range of motion and be allowed to do normal kid activities.  We were fortunate that he was only 5 hours away from our home, but I am pretty sure that we would have traveled however far we needed to for him to have treated our daughter in order to maintain that normal childhood for her.

January 14th, 2015 - 3 months after the external fixator was removed, Ava made it to TRIPLE DIGITS in her hip range of motion!!  104 degree hip flexion (and 80 degree knee flexion!).  The physical therapists who have been so wonderful and patient with her since June were thrilled, too.  They literally were doing cartwheels for her in the back of the gym!  5 days a week of PT since....ummm...forever is finally paying off!

January 17th, 2015 - Ava made it to 112 degrees in the hip and NINETY DEGREE KNEE BEND!!! We were whooping and hollering!  And she got to pick where we went to dinner that night (her choice? Olive Garden).  It is amazing to see her sitting up straight at the table in a regular chair.  Truly a blessing!

January 19th, 2015 - We traveled back to Baltimore for our 3 month follow up appointment with Dr. Standard.  When he came in and saw her flexion and read her range of motion numbers, he said it 'made his day' to see how far she had progressed!  He said her xrays looked really good - the hip is contained and round and looking like it is healing in a beautiful shape.  There is always a chance that it will develop into an odd shape or have 'divits' or something in it, so we have to keep watching it.  But for now, she looks like a textbook case of success!

Then, he said the magic words that she's been waiting to hear:  You can run AND jump and be a kid!  That's right:  Released to Full Activity!  She can participate in PE at school, she can jump around and run to her heart's content!!  She needs to continue with PT and keep her range of motion progressing.  Ava asked if she can play softball in the spring and he said "Absolutely!".  Then she asked if she can go to a Bounce House and he said, "If it's okay with your mother..."  (which is is totally NOT okay with me, but we'll talk about it in the coming months!!!)

Ava wrote him a lovely little card and he was so happy to pose for a picture with her before we left.  We don't have to go back to Baltimore for THREE MONTHS!  Woo Hoo!