Saturday, February 15, 2014

The family that races together...

Christian and I are incredibly happy to be fit again and races are such a fun motivation.  So many races have a kids' 1k or mile race, too.  The kids get shirts, medals, post-race bagels -- all the fun that goes with paying to run (or walk!) with a bunch of other people.  #2 kid had been having hip pain on and off for the last six months, but it always seemed to resolve.  The x-ray came back completely normal and we figured it was just a fluke.  We never, ever push the kids to try to accomplish anything athletically.  It's all what they want to do, at their own pace.  #2, especially, played harder in the back yard than he did on the soccer field or the race course.  When the limp came back with a vengeance after it seemed to get better over Christmas vacation, we headed to the pediatric orthopedist.  He has been on restricted movement while we figure out what's going on with what seems to be Legg-Calve-Perthes, or the hip joint destroying itself.  The good news is that the hip bone will regenerate, the bad news is that it takes years and he's not supposed to run or jump, ever.  The goal is to have the bone reform in the proper shape to avoid arthritis later in life.  Have you ever tried to keep a six-year-old from running and jumping?  It's contrary to their very nature.  And now that we've been through the MRI and back to an even more specialized specialist, it looks like he may be in for years of treatment involving multiple surgeries.  There are no good answers.  We're being pressed to make a decision about surgical treatment by early next week and I can't even wrap my head around all of it when the experts do not agree on the treatment for 6-8 year old kids.  He's hurting, he's scared and I cannot make it go away.

I seriously considered scrapping all of my race plans in solidarity with my poor kid.  It's just so not fair that he can't join in!  No baseball/soccer/basketball teams, no races, no medals, no team uniforms, no race shirts! But ultimately he needs a mom and I need an outlet so I'm going to my race even though it all seems so trite now, shirts and medals and such.  I'm going tomorrow out of pure selfishness, to get to that point that comes for me at mile 9 where the only thing I can still think about is putting my feet in front of each other as fast as they'll go.  I need an empty head and I can't think of a better way to get it since I can never convince myself to work as hard just walking around our neighborhood as I do in a race.  #2 kid will totally be getting my medal tomorrow and maybe for years to come.

1 comment:

  1. Brynne - great commentary on Prethes Calve - that's what I had, never diagnosed until my 50's and misdiagnosed again as arthritis or some took it as just in my head or "I should walk more" and not use the Handicapped sticker that I had - so after 10 years, Vioxx was removed from the market as being dangerous - I saw one ortho doctor in 05 and he was rude and also misdiagnosed my problem - then I found Dr. Suprock, my hero, he told me I had Prathes, a birth defect of which I never knew I had - he told me it had nothing to do with weight or being lazy or unfit - he asked me "did you never have any pain" and I told him only for 10 years - when he read my x-ray -I had 2" of bone on bone scraped off the top of the joint and another 2" rubbed off the side - no wonder I was walking with a cane, all lopsided and living on Darvocet - up to 5 pills a day and trying to work!!! Thank goodness for my friends who really helped me out - so on 7-5-05 I entered Hamot hospital, Marlene took me as Jim was in Iraq - in 2 hours I had a new hip - I recovered doing what the Dr. told me to do and was back in the pool, both rehab and walking within 3 weeks - I still had a walker, the the cane - there are some things I have a little more difficulty doing as I am 1" shorter on the right leg -so I hope that Pete gets the help now he needs and not suffer the pain, agony and humiliation that I had to suffer for over 10 years!!!!! I hope this helps and I wish that had had loving parents as the kids have, let us know if we can help in any way! Love Louise

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