About 2 to 4 weeks after the baby was born, Jo developed some pain in both hips. The pain was enough to make walking uncomfortable and dancing impossible. For several months, the pain gradually got a little worse. Initially her doctors thought she might have tendonitis, so Jo started some physical therapy.
About 2 weeks ago (early October), Dr. Alvarez decided to run some tests on the bones in her hips and we received some more frightening news. Jo’s bones in her hips were deteriorating and she was at risk of having her hips collapse.
TODAY (enough background already, eh?), we saw Dr. Ted Parks, an orthopedic surgeon at Presbyterian St. Luke’s downtown. Once again, we found that when you get to meet with a specialist, they are able to make things very “matter of fact” and overall, it is very calming.
Dr. Parks explained to us that Jo has a disease called Avascular Necrosis. What this means is that the bone inside the ball joint of the hip socket is dying. Eventually, Jo will be left with hollow eggshells as ball joints in her hips. This condition was most likely caused by the steroids Jo was prescribed, and took for a couple of weeks last year when her anemia was first discovered.
The good news is that the disease will eventually run its course by destroying all of the bone in the ball joint (femoral head), and then the bone will grow back. The disease basically runs out of bone to kill and then it goes away. The problem is that without healthy bone inside the ball of the hip, Jo is at risk of the ball in either or both hips collapsing. Actually, Jo does have one very small bit of collapse in one of her hips already.
What the doctor would like to do is a procedure called a “core decompression” where he would drill a pencil sized hole through her hip and into the ball of the hip. This decompression has a 66% chance of halting the disease in its tracks and allowing the bone rebuilding process to start.
Once again, the problem – Jo’s blood counts could very possibly be way to low for any type of surgery. Actually, Dr. Parks wants to go over this possibility in detail with Dr. Alvarez. If surgery is not an option, then Jo must let the disease run its course. She would be at a very high risk of further collapse in the hip, which would result in a much shorter life span of her natural hip. If the bone collapses, it loses its nice, natural shape and causes the cartilage to be worn away quicker than normal. Once the cartilage is gone, she would have bone against bone in her hip and then a hip replacement would take place.
Tomorrow, we will see another orthopedic surgeon. For now, Jo must use crutches to keep as much weight as possible off her hips. My mom and I have also banned Jo from using the stairs in the house. Jo and I have moved to the guest bedroom on the main floor and put mom in the master bedroom upstairs. We must also keep Jo from picking up the baby and walking around. For the most part, we want Jo sitting down and then we bring Anna to her. We have a unique opportunity right now. Jo has had minimal hip collapse and if we can keep the eggshells from breaking, eventually the bone will grow back. Sometimes it feels like we are going overboard, but then we remind ourselves that this is our only chance to save Jo’s natural hips.
When we found out the severity of Jo’s hip problems, we immediately asked my mom to fly out from Minnesota. She has been her a week already and I don’t know what we would do without her right now. Jo has been out of the house at least 5 or 6 hours per day with various doctor appointments each of the past 7 days. My mom is a “schedule” person and little Anna is finding that out in a hurry. Babies respond very well to schedules I have found. Anna has slept about 11 hours each of the past 5 or 6 nights and she is sleeping more and more during the day. There is nothing better in the morning that a baby girl who has just slept 11 hours!
