Sorry for the long lapse of writing on Simon's recovery! Right when he was starting to get around and I had some time to write - summer vacation was here and I had both boys home most of the time. Now they are back in school and some free time is here again as I am only working part time now.
Simon is doing very well. He is actually running ALOT - and FAST especially the last few weeks. Most of the summer he seemed like a very normal child and most people did not notice anything wrong with him. He did have a chronic limp all summer that really only we could see, and his stamina was lower than usual (he is usually very energetic so to most people his stamina seemed fine). We didn't let him go to camp - but I think he probably could have and he got stir crazy being home with mom. The picture here is at the beach end of summer and he did great on the sand - which can be hard to walk on!
I would say it took longer than I expected for him to start walking normally again post surgery. I think you are so glad the cast is off and you feel you are moving forward. It actually takes even longer than the cast was on for them to be safely walking on their own and there is a constant worry about them falling or getting hurt. You have to worry about the normal things kids do - like wrestling with friends or his brother, someone falling on him (and kids do this all the time! I guess it's fun!).
His surgery leg is 1/2 - 3/4 inch shorter than the other leg. We are debating whether he needs a lift. The PT did not think so, but he did have some back/pelvic pain end of summer and we wonder if it's from the leg discrepency and will be looking into that futher. He doesn't complain about it anymore, but he could just be accepting it as normal now and he rarely complains about physical pain anyway.
We saw the surgeon at Shriners at the 6 month mark and they did an xray and all the dead bone seems to have absorbed and there is alittle new growth starting. This is good! He did have full involvement of the head of the femur and it was totally lost.
Now we don't go back until end of January. The 3 inch metal plate may come out in the Spring depending on how much growth has come back and the shape of the head.
In the meantime he is on mild precautions - he can run and jump - but just not off things. He was invited to a bounce house party in a few weeks and we are debating if he should go.... he probably shouldn't but it's hard to keep denying him of all the fun things - but once he is better he should be able to do everything!
Here is his xray with the plate and screws (ugh! those long screws!). I'm glad I didn't see this xray until long after his surgery and recovery!
