A Step At a Time

As parents we want to give our kids the best of everything. The best we can sensibly afford, the best advice, and the best chances in life. Last year my husband and I had to make a potentially life altering decision for our son Aidan. All current indications are that it was the right decision but only time will tell.

In the spring of 2009 our son came home from school in his wheelchair. He was crying hysterically and the bus driver said she got him that way from the teacher. "Did they call you" she asked me? But sadly they had not. My son doesn't speak words he simply smiles, signs "OK," or shows disapproval, and this was way beyond disapproval. He has cerebral palsy and for most of his 6 years of life his muscles and bones have played a kind of tug of war. With this in mind I took him to our chiropractor to see if perhaps this was the source of his pain. It was determined that one of his hips was rotated forward and so he was adjusted.

For the next few weeks this continued to happen until one day his physical therapist asked me if I had ever had his hips x-rayed. I hadn't. This was not one of the things our doctors were monitoring. I asked our chiropractor if he could do it and he agreed. The x-ray to him was inconclusive however he told me he wasn't a pediatric specialist and maybe I should take it to someone else, so I did.

I was not prepared for what I would later hear. Both Aidan's hips were dislocated. There was a local surgeon that did this kind of repair but it would not be an easy fix. I went home cried a lot and then called for a consultation.

The biggest question I had was whether this surgery would help my son walk. He said, "usually by the time it gets to this stage most of my patients aren't walking anyway, I can't tell you that. But I will tell you that if we don't repair his hips he will never be stable enough to walk."

This last August Aidan went through two hip surgeries known as a "bi-lateral hip reduction with tendon lenghtening" a week apart. We stayed in the hospital for 10 days. When he did come home it was in a full body cast known as a spica cast. It ran from his nipple line to his toes with his feet turned out and about 15 inches apart. I did have to laugh when we tried to get him through the very small doorways in our home. We had to literally turn him sideways and walk through holding him horizontally, aahhh the memories.

So we survived the last six months. It was very tough but so am I. I was a type A businesswoman that became a full time stay-at-home mom to a 25 week preemie. I scare easy, I cry, and then I assess the situation and do what needs to be done. What is the alternative? For me, there isn't one.

This week marked six months since surgery and it was a great week. Aidan took 47 independent steps at physical therapy and the surgeon told me he looks great and better yet his hips look great. Now everyday, one step at a time, Aidan shows me why we went through what we did.