so, why post this quote?
It's significant to us.
We think Lucas runs through his days often times in pain but does not say anything. We think that through the 7 years he spent in the orphanage, that he didn't, or couldn't get attention for it, so he just adapted to it. This is a common issue with institutionalized kids. Even babies will come home with habits of not crying when they bump their head or something.
Last night, Lucas came into our room at 2:30 a.m. and said "mommy, my legs hurt". I asked him where and he pointed to a spot around his knee area. This should not be surprising at all considering what his xrays look like.
I thought I would share because so many people have asked me recently "why does he have to have his feet amputated?"
So here it is for those of you who are visually inclined like me--and I hope if others see this who are consdering a child like this for adoption they know it is doable...even though it looks like a mess. Our boy is our boy---and this is fixable.
So the explanation goes like this:
His diagnosis is Fibular Hemelilia (no fibula, completely absent--that's the small bone in your lower leg) he has both of his Tibia (shin bones) The right one has some bowing issues--we don't think it was ever broken, it appears it just developed that way.
He also has only 2 toes on each foot. And Syndactyly which means the 2 toes he has on the right foot are fused. His right foot as you can see has a heel bone but it is misplaced and his entire right foot is rounded at the bottom. He has tiny little feet -- and legs.
Both of his knees bow outward.
So there ya have it.
Now back to last night.
Is it not a wonder that the boy would wake up ocassionally and complain that something in his legs hurt? He has been with us now for 5 months. This is the FIRST time he has told us in the middle of the night that he is hurting. He rarely mentions any of it bothering him, although he does have a desire to be carried quite often--but I think that is mostly cuz he has a better view of the world.
So why amputate the feet? basically it should in theory give him more stability and I am thinking less pain (even though he never says anything about that) Also, the prosthetics will be fit in such a way that they will be even him out so he can walk straight. I'm going to try to get some video footage of him running/walking "before" surgery so I can show you what his gait looks like. Then we can compare in a few months what the surgery does also.
Last night I massaged his leg for a while but that really didn't seem to help much so I gave him some ibuprofen and he went back to sleep. My question is "what set it off in the first place?" and the only think I can come up with is running around a lot yesterday with the dog, and then through a parking lot. Who knows?
Counting down the days to surgery on Sept. 28. Stay tuned.
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