Jesse's knee...the saga continues

After my last entry, we went through the weekend and Jesse became more active. The swelling was going down and for that we were thankful. We went to church on Sunday and he did really well, but of course we had a hard time keeping Jesse calm. He wanted to play with his buddies. By the end of the morning he was limping pretty severely and looked so pathetic! We had Soup & Carols that evening so we were back at church by 5:30. He ran some more despite me trying to keep him calm and sitting. Yeah right, Mom! You can't keep a good man down! That evening, he began "in toeing" rather severely and Jason and I were very concerned. We decided we would call our pediatrician the next morning.

We had an appointment with our Ped on Monday afternoon on December 8. After examining him and seeing the x-ray report from the hospital, Dr. B said that we could re-x-ray it but it would most likely NOT show us anything new and that we would probably need to have an MRI so he was going to start with that.

They scheduled his MRI at the hospital on Monday, December 15. Jesse was a real trooper. Everything that the tech had was way too big so they had to stuff padding all around his knee trying to keep it still. We got through about 3 parts of the test and he decided that Jesse was still moving too much. His knee he was holding still, but he would occasionally wiggle his foot which, in turn, would wiggle his knee. So our tech and another tech came in and they taped his shoe to the knee equipped and shoved more padding and wedges around him. Finally he was unable to wiggle his foot so we started back through the tests. Hooray! We made it!

That Friday I called and spoke with the nurse at Dr. B's office and she told me that they could not rule out a fracture, but that the MRI report was leaning more toward the possibility of a torn ACL which is an acronym for the anterior cuciate ligament. Click HERE to see an illustration of the anatomy of the knee. She explained that Dr. B would be referring us to a pediatric orthopedic specialist in Kansas City and our appointment was for Tuesday, December 30 at Children's Mercy Hospital.

We drove over here to K.C. yesterday morning and met Nana and Papa at the hospital. They took Joe and Jake with them so Jason and I could concentrate on Jesse and the doctors. We brought the cd of his MRI and the reports from his MRI and his x-rays.

We got back to a room and went through the whole scenario with the nurse about how this happened and why we were there. Then after a while a younger Dr. came in and asked a bunch more questions and said Dr. Anderson would be looking over the MRI. After a while longer, a different nurse came and told us that Dr. A had ordered another set of x-rays for comparison so she told us across the floor to radiology. Jesse did great. Then we waited a little while longer until the young Dr. came back in and asked if we had the written radiology reports from his x-rays and MRI. We gave those to him and waited and he said that Dr. Anderson had his radiologist review all of the information. Jesse was so good during all of this! He played with his Batman toys, we read books, and played with a wall-mounted driving toy on the wall of the exam room. Finally Dr. Anderson came it with his entourage of student doctors and we were off and running.

After examining Jesse's knee, he concluded that at the very least, his ACL is not attached to the tibia. And from the x-rays, he does have a fracture of some sort. He believes that his ACL pulled away from the tibia taking a small bone fragment with it. OUCH! It is unclear whether the ACL is attached to the fragment or floating around free. Either way, the fragment could cause further damage in the knee either in tears to the meniscus or cartilage of the knee. Not good. He explained that he personally does not specialize in sports medicine injuries so he wanted to consult with some of his colleagues. So we waited while he made some calls. They were all very nice and we appreciated everyone so much!

He came back and explained that this sort of injury is hardly ever seen in children this young. In fact, Jesse is a prime candidate for documentation and publication in a medical journal on this case. Hmmm. Interesting. His colleagues agreed that at the very least that an exploratory arthroscopy is necessary to document what shape his ACL and his tibial spines are in. He may need repair or reconstruction, but they will not be able to say until they are in there. He passed Jason's number on to the 2 other doctors and told us they would be in touch.

They were in touch...TODAY! A nurse called to say he is scheduled for surgery next Wednesday, January 7. That is very quick, but I know they are concerned with how long it has already been since the initial trauma so they are eager to get in there and fix the problem. According to the nurse, all 3 doctors will be part of the surgery. Dr. Latz will be the head surgeon and Dr. Pacicca and Dr. Anderson will assist and, yes, this will be documented for a medical journal.

Needless to say, my head is still spinning a little. I am still digesting it all. We did explain to Jesse that he has a piece of broken bone in his knee that the doctors need to fix and that he will be having surgery. He cried. I am praying for peace for all of us. I know in my heart that the Lord has led us to these great doctors and I know he will recover, but it will be very hard.
He will have an overnite stay at the hospital and he will have PT the next morning to teach him how to use his walker. It's a long road ahead, but I know the Lord will give us strength as we face each day. Thank you, Jesus!

A very interesting way to begin 2009. I am so thankful that my Heavenly Father is still on his throne and that nothing escapes His sight.

Lord Jesus, please hold my baby close to you through each day ahead. Thank you for the wisdom of these doctors. We love you, Lord!

Blessings,
~ Marcia ~