1st Check up with Dr. Woo at Shands

Last Wednesday, we all took a trip to Gainesville for our first check up with Dr. Woo since we were cleared from the Hyperbaric Chamber treatments last November. However....first we met with Paul at Gainesville Prosthetics. As you can see in this most recent picture of Toby's feet....it's time for a new footie. It's also time for a height adjustment to be done to the prosthesis as well. He's borderline having to get a whole new leg anyway, so we are going ahead and getting leggie #2 instead of spending a month to get a new foot and make height adjustments. We have set our casting and diagnostic fittings for May 18th. Then we will go back on the 29th to do the final fitting and get Toby's 2nd leg. I can't believe we already need to get another one....that will make leggie #1 - 5 months old. Paul said we could stretch it a little longer if we wanted to.... but by having his first leg - we will be able to use it at the beach. We won't have to be too concerned about ruining it - so to speak:)

Our appointment on Thursday with Dr. Woo was great. He was so impressed with Toby and how far he's come. He commented on his normal gate pattern for a toddler with a prosthesis that just learned to walk 2 months ago. I tried to get Dr. Woo to hold Toby but as you can see... he didn't like that very much. Dr. Woo inspected Toby's nubby and had a few things to mention. Remember Toby's remaining bone - the Tibia that's bowed ( curved out and to the side)? We were given the option to do an osteotomy (breaking of a bone to correct it's growth) when Dr. Woo performed the Symes Amputation, but we chose not to - to his recommendation. Most of the time an osteotomy is not necessary. We will just need to wait and see if that bowing of the Tibia straightens out so that future more detailed prosthesis will fit better. If the bowing makes it hard for the Prosthetist to design a leg for Toby, we may need to have the outpatient osteotomy surgery. We were told that could be years down the road. Dr. Woo wants to see us back every year for a scanogram (a detailed scan of Toby's lower body that will measure each bone). He wants to keep a record of each measurement so that we can determine the length discrepancy in Toby's femur (thigh) bone. That's the other known concern we are facing. If we see that the absolute difference is widening, we will know that Femur lenghtening is in our future... but it wouldn't be until Toby was about 10 years old. Hopefully .... like many other FH children, Toby's prosthesis will make up for the slight shortfall in the femur length, and the tibia will straighten due to normal growth to fit into a prosthesis well. Ron and I have decided there will be no cosmetic surgeries. Our Prosthetist will be able to accommodate a slight bow of the Tibia just fine!

The shorter the residual limb the more options we will have when choosing different types of limbs for Toby. We will have more options as to what type of foot, lower leg, shocks, boots, blades, etc. we can get. Who ever thought that after all of this we would want his right leg to be shorter?? Funny how life works. The appointments were great and we have so much to be thankful for. It did make my anxiety rise...just going back there. I still get worried because we are not in the clear ... but I guess that's just life with a kid... you never know what's going to happen. The thought of lengthening after everything we've been through is enough to make me sick to my stomach. Continue your prayers. We appreciate it. As for now... I can't think about anything too long...becuase I can't sit still long enough - that boy has us running in circles:)

Love, The Kings