Charlottesville Follow-Up

Today was the follow-up with her surgeon in Charlottesville and the Dr. was very pleased with her progress.  For her vitals she was out of her chair and sat up SO good!  She got a little uneasy with the blood pressure cuff but did great.

She was fussy when she got to the exam room - Aaron took her out of her wheel chair and sat her up in a regular chair and she was happy to sit there and wait for the Dr. to come in. 

 

She's wearing her Ariel Princess sticker that she got after she had her x-rays done.  The doctor said her x-rays looked great and the hardware was exactly where it should be.  Alex's left knee feels like rice krispies when you manipulate it - it's very springy feeling and the Dr. said what we're feeling is the spring in the hardware and that's just not going to go away.  Additionally, we've noticed a lot more bruising on her knees recently and the Dr. said that the hardware in her knees is just right under the skin so that is not surprising to him at all.  After intensive therapy her knees were at -8 and -6 and he thought that was fantastic. We still put her in her hound dog braces, do tons of stretches, stander, sit to stand exercises, etc. so he said to keep it all up.  We are waiting and waiting for full knee extension from her, especially with walking but the Dr. stressed more than once that his best "guestimate" is that it is going to take over a year before she gets there and he reminded us as she grows the hardware will force her legs straighter and straighter.  One last issue we wanted to talk about was Alex's toes and toe nails turning blue. 

 

 Alex tends to contract her toes tightly like this, a lot, so the Dr. said he attributes the blueness to that.

 

Overall a good appointment.  She's gained weight again so she's now up to 68 pounds, almost back to her pre-surgical weight back in December.  They had her height at 4 ft. 9 inches but that was with her shoes on so I'm deducting some!

 

Tomorrow we have to be at the hospital at 6AM for some dental surgery, that is way too early - no rest for the weary :)