A few days before Christmas, Tara was admitted to hospital with a suspected infection that was spreading. Very scary. It turned out to be internal bleeding, probably caused by the broken bones in her leg scraping on the tissue. This has kind of made the decision easier on whether to go for an Ilizarov Frame or amputation. We've been discussing both options with our specialist - and we were leaning towards the amputation because the likelihood of Ilizarov working for Tara is very minimal since her pseudoarthrosis is severe and since she had so many dreadful operations when she was a baby (altho' even without those ops her odds of keeping her leg have never been good).
So we've been talking about it in depth for at least a year - and Tara's very into the idea. She met a boy who'd had Ilizarov and didn't like the look of it at all. She has been present at all our meetings, so the words 'amputation' and 'prosthesis' don't scare her (although she does prefer to say 'pretend leggie'). She loves leggie loo (her left leg which has the pseudoarthrosis), and wishes she could keep it forever in a treasure box of sorts. But instead she's taken heaps of photos which we'll put up at a later stage.
Her hospital visit was great - Gold Coast Hospital on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. They spoilt her rotten because it was almost Christmas (she was allowed out on Christmas Eve) - so she had visits from the firemen, Santa Claus and plenty of others. This is a pic of her with one of her many gifts - Coco. The nurses were fantastic and the only thing really missing was DOCTORS! Hope that'll get sorted out by Australia's newly elected prime minister, Kevin Rudd (he promised!). The hospital staff in Australia are just so over-worked, under-staffed etc. - even this whole decision about whether to try the Ilizarov Frame or amputate has been a debarcle - the hospital in Brisbane was meant to put us in touch with a child who'd had a frame, and a child who'd had an amputation - but 2 months later all they'd come up with was the phone number of a boy who'd had an amputation - so we phoned his mother to arrange a meeting - only to be told by the horrified mom that her son has NOT had an amputation.
So we've been talking about it in depth for at least a year - and Tara's very into the idea. She met a boy who'd had Ilizarov and didn't like the look of it at all. She has been present at all our meetings, so the words 'amputation' and 'prosthesis' don't scare her (although she does prefer to say 'pretend leggie'). She loves leggie loo (her left leg which has the pseudoarthrosis), and wishes she could keep it forever in a treasure box of sorts. But instead she's taken heaps of photos which we'll put up at a later stage.
Her hospital visit was great - Gold Coast Hospital on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. They spoilt her rotten because it was almost Christmas (she was allowed out on Christmas Eve) - so she had visits from the firemen, Santa Claus and plenty of others. This is a pic of her with one of her many gifts - Coco. The nurses were fantastic and the only thing really missing was DOCTORS! Hope that'll get sorted out by Australia's newly elected prime minister, Kevin Rudd (he promised!). The hospital staff in Australia are just so over-worked, under-staffed etc. - even this whole decision about whether to try the Ilizarov Frame or amputate has been a debarcle - the hospital in Brisbane was meant to put us in touch with a child who'd had a frame, and a child who'd had an amputation - but 2 months later all they'd come up with was the phone number of a boy who'd had an amputation - so we phoned his mother to arrange a meeting - only to be told by the horrified mom that her son has NOT had an amputation.
1 comment:
I think I was that mum. Our son is 8 years old and has fibula hemimelia. He is now considering amputation. Glad all went well for you.
Dominique
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