Most of you know that Korbin was recently accepted to Shriners Hospital in SLC for his perthes disease and that his first appointment with them confirmed what we have been dreading with Korbin needing surgery. Korbin is scheduled to be admitted to Shriners on Feb. 23rd and he will go in for surgery first thing in the morning on the 24th. He will be staying there for 3 to 5 days.
The surgery that they will be doing is called a varus osteotomy with an adductor muscle tendon release. This is a major surgery that involves cutting a wedge shape piece of bone out of the neck of the femur bone and then repositioning the head of the femur bone into the hip socket for better containment. They then attach a piece of hardware that will keep the head in that position until blood will hopefully be restored to the head in order for it to rebuild. They will also do a tendon release of his adductor muscles in order to keep them from shortening. This is not a cure for perthes but a containment method and the reason this is need is because his bone is subluxing out of the hip joint.
I just thought that I would email a link that shows a picture of the hardware that Korbin is going to have in his leg with the surgery, http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00070. (You have to scroll all the way down to the bottom) It also gives some great information about the disease that Korbin is going through. The one thing that will be awesome is that he doesn't have to have the casts from chest to toes! I seriously don't know what I would do with him if that was the case. He will still need to be in a wheelchair for 6 weeks and then move to crutches and eventually will be able to walk after extensive physical therapy. His hardware will need to be removed with another surgery that will be performed next year.
I also attached Korbin's current x-rays from Jan. 25th so you can see them. Sorry that some of the pictures are a little small. I also talked to the doctor in Baltimore, MD to get yet another opinion and although he admitted that he was bias and preferred his surgery method, he did agree that by looking at Korbin's x-rays that he does need more aggressive treatment. So in a way that was a good confirmation for us that we are heading in the right direction and that the surgery we are going to have is necessary.
Korbin has an amazing attitude thus far and is not scared of the surgery. I will give you an update as to how he feels about that post op. Unfortunately this is a painful surgery and I know it will take our family and friends to aid in his recovery. Many people have asked what they can do and at this point we really don't know. This is going to be a big change for all of us and what we feel is most important is love and support. If anyone would like, Korbin loves snail mail! Cards, notes or letters would make his day!
We will try to keep everyone updated as best as we can and I will try to post pictures when I can. Keep Korbin in your prayers and thoughts this upcoming week and we appreciate all the love and support we have been receiving!
