Report from David Reni's Trip to Shriners Hospital

This morning was the much-anticipated trip to Shriner's Hospital in Lexington for David Reni's appointment with the prosthetics and orthopedic team. I don't know where to begin, so I'll just start with captions under the photos...

Our dear friends, Jonathan and Faith, met us for breakfast at the hospital cafeteria prior to our appointment time. Faith is a caseworker at Shriners so we are thrilled to have a friend there with us. It is their 5th anniversary today (Nathan was honored to be in their wedding party) so it was especially fun to be with them!

Reni LOVED all the toys in the waiting area. He couldn't stop exploring, going from one thing to the next. The only time he really cried today was when we had to tear him away from the toys to get started on the rounds of exams and meetings!

SUCH a boy. He loves anything with wheels --- and he knows what you do with a steering wheel too!

Making friends outside the x-ray room. He enjoys being around other kids, which is neat to see.

The skeleton caught his eye off the bat.

They took 5 x-rays. Three of his legs and two of his hands.

He was fascinated with all of the animals hanging from the ceiling and around the room. The techs were amazed that he didn't cry or protest at all when we had to pin him down motionless for the scans.

After the x-rays we met with the orthopedic doctor, Dr. Walker (does anyone besides me find her name ironic)? He crawled around for her and let her feel his legs, but as soon as the exam was finished, he promptly fell asleep.

So here is what we learned....

1.) David Reni's femurs are perfectly and completely formed. What isn't visible is anything below the femurs, including on his left leg which feels like it contains at the least some cartilage below where a knee joint would be. It also feels like there is muscle attached.

2.) the presence of some kind of joint has big implications when it comes to prosthetics as a biological knee is infinitely more beneficial than an artificial knee. Dr. Walker has scheduled an MRI for David Reni next week to determine if there is anything in that flab of skin below his femur worth saving.

3.) If the MRI reveals that he does have a potential joint (I believe she said that knee joints might not show up on an x-ray until age three or four), then he will have two different prosthetics, one for each leg. The right leg will have an articulating knee so his leg will bend when seated on the floor, the left would not (he would use his 'real' knee). This is a little more tricky, however, because the artificial knee would be a couple of inches lower than his bio knee. Once a decision is made, he will have his first legs in 4 weeks!

4.) X-rays of his hands revealed that he has two fused metacarples in his left hand. He will see a hand specialist, but it doesn't appear to be infringing on his ability to use his hand and surgery to separate the bones would likely be pointless as the bones are likely to fuse together again.

Before we left, we visited Faith's office. Reni was pleased to find more toys! We look forward to many, many more such visits with Faith in the future!

There is a bit more I could share, but we have to take both kids to the doctors now. Ellie just threw up so I have a feeling her fever this morning was from the flu, but the appointment was already made. We'll just check and see if she doesn't have anything else. We are also going to have David Reni's ears checked again. Once his antibiotic course was completed, his sleepless night and ear tugging returned. What a busy day!