Dom's Appointment

So we went to a pediatric orthopedic doctor yesterday at St. John's. The doctor was very very nice. I made my Dad go with me. I was afraid that Dom wouldn't walk and I wouldn't be able to carry him the whole way from the parking garage to the office.

I "swapped" kids at daycare, dropping off Annabelle and picking up Dom and we headed out to my parents to ride with my Dad. We got to the doctor appointment right on time and waited to get called back.

When we did get called back, there were a few little things Dom wouldn't do. One was, we had to get him to STAND on a scale so we could get his weight and height. He didn't want to stand. So we tried having him sit and then guess his height. He wouldn't even do that. I had to bribe him with the M&M's my mom put in my purse "Just in case". :)

So we got his weight (32.8 lbs) and kind of guessed on his height (they said 36" but I know he's taller than that because he likes to carry around a yard stick and he's taller than the yard stick!).

Then we went back to a room. A different nurse came in and tried to check him out. He wouldn't cooperate. He didn't want to lay on the table so she tried doing her tests while he sat on my lap. He didn't cooperate too well there either. She did some movement and then left to get the doctor. Dom already looked like he was walking better to me. So I was kind of worried that we'd be at this doctor and still get no answers.

The nurse decided to send us back for x-rays. I was afraid we'd have to go somewhere else, then come back and it would be a really long process. But they had an x-ray machine there. A new nurse came and got us and we went back to the x-ray room. There were two nurses there. One to hit the button to take the x-ray and one to help me hold Dom down. He was terrified of the machine.

They took 5 x-rays. 2 of his hips and 3 of his left foot at different angles. He screamed the entire time and I felt awful. But once they were over, they sent us back to our room and told us the x-rays would be ready in 5 minutes. So that was awesome.

The actual doctor came in shortly and had him walk up and down the hallway a few times (which he did like a little puppy trying to get a sucker from a nurse). And luckily (or unfortunately??) she noticed the limp even though it was much less noticeable to me. She brought him back into the room and got him to lay on the table, she did movements of his hips.

She told me that she could feel that it was harder to move his left hip. His left leg was the leg he was dragging all day so at least we were on the same page there!

She told me that she thinks he has transient synovitis of the hip which is basically inflammation around his hip caused from a virus. So the plan is to watch him. Give him ibuprofen. And hope it goes away, like it did last time.

But we have to keep a close eye on it. Because if it keeps coming and going like this, it could be something called Legg-Calve-Perthes disease. You can read about this on that same website I posted above, but basically it's when there isn't enough blood supply to the leg and can cause limping. The doctor told me that if he does have that, it's basically the same treatment (rest and ibuprofen) but they add physical therapy to try and increase the blood flow to that leg.

So we'll watch. I gave him ibuprofen last night. Hopefully today there will be improvement. He was getting so frustrated last night. He kept trying to run and would fall. Or try to do the stairs and trip (which terrified me!). So we have to keep a CLOSE eye on him for now.

I feel so bad for him every time I see him trip. I hope this is the last we see of this and it's just the first problem and not the perthes disease! Keep your fingers crossed.