Life has been very busy since the new school year started. Kelli attends pre-kindergarten full time and is doing very well this year. (Fortunately I get to be her teacher for half of the school day!) For the first three months, Kelli had appointments 3 days a week after school. Once a week she met with a counselor to work on self-esteem and self-control issues. Twice a week she worked with a physical therapist to regain muscle strength.
It was heartbreaking at times to watch her during physical therapy. Four-year-olds should be out running and playing, not doing exercises in a PT office. All the hard work has paid off, though. She "graduated" from physical therapy the week of Thanksgiving. Now she is back to walking, running, and dancing with no difficulty.
She does still meet with her counselor once a week to work on self-esteem issues though. Both her counselor and I are trying to get her to identify things she does well. When we ask her what she is good at or what she likes about herself, she usually changes the subject or refuses to answer. She also has a very low tolerance for any discomfort (shirt tags against her skin, pants being too long and covering her foot, small scrapes) or for what she feels is less than a perfect accomplishment (letters not written to her own expectation, drawings not turning out the way she envisioned them, etc). Despite our encouragement and assistance, she does not handle these events well - usually resulting in some sort of meltdown.
So, where are we going from here? Kelli has seen other children wearing an external fixator and knows a bit about the leg-lengthening process. At this moment in time, she does not want to go through it. Knowing her personality, we also do not think she will handle the pain of a leg-lengthening procedure and the extensive physical therapy that would be involved.
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Found this pic from an online search.
Kelli would have to have this on her femur if she chose to have the lengthening surgery.
I can barely handle looking at that thing! |
Our choice right now is just to wait. If she changes her mind later in life, we will support her as she undergoes the difficult lengthening procedure. If not, she will either have to get higher shoe lifts as her discrepancy grows or start wearing some sort of prosthetic.
She does need to have a plate and screw this year. In two months we have an appointment to see her surgeon in Baltimore to talk about this procedure. However, we also have an appointment with a specialist in Hershey in a week and a half to see if she can do it and to find out her recommendations for further treatment. If we are able to have this done in Hershey, we will not have the large expense that would come with having it done in Baltimore. (In-state procedures are covered by her secondary insurance. Out-of-state ones are not.)
