Today we went to see another Orthopedic Surgeon, Tom Thomas at Swedish Medical Center. Dr. Thomas is a friend of Dr. Alvarez and he came into the office as soon as he got back from a hunting trip just to see Jo. The information was very similar to what we got yesterday, but Dr. Thomas was a little less optimistic. He feels that surgery is not at all an option until Jo’s blood condition is resolved, and even then, surgery would most likely only be possible on Jo’s left hip, which has not collapsed at all yet. The collapse in her right hip, even as minor as it is right now, would make surgery on that hip too risky.
Dr. Thomas explained to us that right now, the bone is dying and dead bone is hard. When the bone begins to grow back, the new bone will be soft and spongy and it will actually provide more opportunity for a collapse.
Overall, our visit was good. Dr. Thomas believes that Jo may need to be on crutches for a while (I thought he said 2 years – Jo says she heard “for a while”) to keep the weight off her hips until the bone has completely grown back. Even then, he feels that the collapse in the right hip will result in Jo needing a complete hip replacement at some point in time. When this could happen is a tough guess, but he feels confident that Jo will outlive her hip. Right now, the focus needs to be on minimizing any more possible damage.
Now for the good news! Jo’s blood counts are still very low, but they are actually higher than they have been in a long time. He white blood cell counts were dangerously low after she had an infection last week, but they have climbed back up to what we have been used to over the past year.
There is still a chance that Jo’s Aplastic Anemia is associated to her pregnancy. She stopped breastfeeding just over a week ago and her body is slowly returning to a true pre-pregnancy state. The doctors in Houston want us to wait 4 to 6 weeks to see if there is any recovery once the pregnancy and breastfeeding is completely over. Keep your fingers crossed!
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