Catch up time

I haven't posted for awhile as things have been very busy at the Walsh household in the last few weeks, so I thought it was about time that I caught up on some of our news.

First of all our appointment with out surgeon regarding Paddy and her leg. We went and saw Paddy's doctor on the 20th of Feb feeling very nervous and armed with loads of questions as we knew we had to tell him which way we were going to go as in LL (leg lengthening) or amputation.

I was very nervous and teary the morning of our appointment and the slightest thing set me off! When we arrived at hospital we ran into Carol and William, William has FH (Fibula Hemimelia) and he had his foot amputated at the age of one. After seeing them I felt much better about things because seeing how William gets around is just amazing, you wouldn't know that he has a prosthetic on, and seeing that calmed my nerves no end! In fact I managed to pull myself together by the time we got to see the doctor, John couldn't believe it, he thought I was going to go through a box of tissues!

So, we had to get to the bottom of why if we LL would they only do 3cm's, Paddy has a 5 cm difference now and the projected difference is 15 cm, (this is a lot to lengthen) by the time she is fully grown. It was explained to us that in NZ they will only lengthen 20-30% of the length of the tibia as any more can lead to complications. So basically if we had gone down the LL route she would never catch up, ever, and to us the risks are not worth it. With amputation they can predict the outcome but not so with LL. There are many risks involved and sometimes they end up with their foot amputated anyway.

Apparently the pain with LL is excruciating and John and I both didn't want to put Paddy through all that with an outcome that is not guaranteed, if they could have said to us the pain is worth it and the results are fantastic we would have done it, no second thoughts what so ever.

So we decided to amputate, it was a hard, hard decision and I still have lots of wobbly moments thinking can we really amputated Paddy's foot, but we have to think long term. It will be only the one operation (hopefully-think Heather Mills she had to have a stump revision, but this is unusual, and also did anyone see her on 'Strictly Come Dancing ') Once she has the operation, she will be in a cast for two weeks, then they fit her stump for a prosthetic, then they make it and hopefully before too long she will be up and walking.

I think the hardest thing for me is that so many people react to someone having a prosthetic, Carol said to me so many people stare at William, sometimes she feels like saying to them would you like me to explain to you what has happened to my sons leg, I am dreading that, but I am sure with time I will get used to it.

So there you are, decision is finally made, now we just have to get through the operation and get on with things. We have phoned the hospital and told them our decision we are now just waiting to hear from them.

If anyone has any questions just email me or post a comment. If there is anyone who doesn't know what LL is all about here is a link with some pictures and what they do is turn the screws every day until new bone grows, this takes about 4-5 weeks then the frame is left on for other 6 months until the bone hardens. This is the easy part, the hard part is stretching all the muscles, tendon, ligaments etc, they don't want to be stretched and it is very painful http://www.wheelessonline.com/ortho/ilizarov_technique



Here is another link, this story is about a little girl called Sarah Walsh (no relation) and she has the same condition as Paddy, she had her foot amputated and you can see how well she is doing.

http://www.steps-charity.org.uk/links/8-122-fibular_hemimelia.php