Emma's Perthes Diary: November 2009 update

Where are we now?

I know we haven't updated our blog for a while. But following our last appointment with the new consultant the emergency treatment was not so immediate. Sadly Emma's Perthes progressed very rapidly and containment treatment was now too late. It's taken a while to get our heads around this and still feel very let down by our first doctors. Many many times I have asked myself why did we not go for a second opinion at one of the orthopaedic hospitals - a place where they see many cases of Perthes and have the top people. I have entered below our last 6 months.

May 2009

Emma had her arthrogram at the end of May. She was first on the list because she was the youngest that day. I prepared her for surgery by wiping her body with antiseptic wipes - luckily they were warm. They put the magic cream on her hands and went off to the theatre. There was a delay and Emma got a little anxious, so the anaesthetist entertained Emma with a surgical glove balloon man :) I was called back about 40 mins later and she was a little dozy. She had a little plaster over the hole and was told all went fine. They had dosed her up from any pain after affects.

The consultant wasn't on duty so his registrar just told us all went well and to come back in 6 weeks where they could discuss the results. I was a bit disappointed as i wanted to know what state her hip was in and whether containment treatment could still be done.

July appointment

Most annoying the consultant wasn't in clinic. We saw a young member of his team who could not really tell us much but said he was booking her in for her surgery. We objected to this as we really wanted to discuss options and results with the consultant. He checked with a senior member of staff and was given a 4 month appointment.

4 months! Seems so long to us especially when we were told her hip was at risk. The longest we waited before was 8 weeks. We called the secretary to see if we could see him earlier as it would be 8 months between our first visit with him. We were advised to write, so after weeks of worrying and when I had calmed down lol, I did get in touch. His reply said little more then at our first meeting with him, so have to wait till the 16th November

Summer holidays on a long boat

Trying to decide on a suitable holiday to stop Emma running around. We went for two weeks on a longboat around part of the Leicestershire ring. Apart from there being a lot of rain, I being unwell with suspected swine flu the first week, we did have a good time.