Young girl, big surgery!!!!! Need reassurance

[Rknees4]

Hey Miranda,
I hear you on the dress not my thing either.   Wow!!!! 3.5 that is faster than I can go. I am so glad it doesn't hurt anymore.   Grade 8 dance you are getting old , young lady.   You have a great time at all your activities Miranda, i am just so proud of how well you are doing.   You take care and enjoy the warm weather and fun, but remember to be just a little careful for another few months.
Take care,
Rk4

[schinz]

Hi Miranda,
     It is fantastic to see you doing so well.  Your Mother seems very special and you are certainly a brave young girl.  My daughter is just turning 13 and if she has to have her surgery, I will be showing her your posts as an inspiration as to what can be accomplished when you are determined.  She also plays softball, which I found ironic.  Keep up the good work!!!

Does anyone know how a proximal femoral osteotomy with no soft tissue work recovery compares to what Miranda is recovering from now?  Is the recovery sequence similar?  Thanks.

[purplechick13]

Thanks for all the encouragement through the ups and downs. If it wasn't for the wonderful people on this website I don't know how either one of us would have survived. Miranda has only 3 more pt sessions left and she will be released. She has not been cleared to run yet however she almost is back to a normal gait, has no problem with her exercises and has no complaints of pain at all. She loves to go to PT, I think that is one positive that will encourage her to have surgery on the right knee next year. She went to her 8th grade graduation dance and looked beautiful even though she did have to wear a dress. She even let mom do her hair and make up. The next day she went bowling with friends for her 14th bday, only group of kids I've ever seen who could bowl gutter balls with bumpers up!!!! She walked Magic Mountain all day with no crutches, or wheel chair and had no need for even motrin. Her biggest distraction was mom texting her every hour to make sure she was alright. But that's what mom's are for right? This is the last week of school and she was able to get all her grades up to A's except for language is a b+ and Math is  a C so she has decided to take Math in summer school to catch up! I am so proud of her, this was a tough year but she made it through and is ready to move on........until next year!
RK4,
When are you gonna give your knees a break? JUST tore my MCL is that all? You need to take it easy. I can tell you a little spit fire yourself. Taking care of everyone but yourself. You have been so good to us, I sure appreciate everything you have done for us. We will be keeping in touch just been busy so it's not as often.

[Rknees4]

Hey Mom and Miranda.
When you go for round 2 Mom try and make it in the summer so she doesn't miss school it is just to hard to catch up.
So glad Miranda has bounced back so well.
Let us know when she goes for round 2 so we can be here for you both.  It is bad enough to have to do it once but twice is hard.  Only warning i have is that no 2 surgeries are the same. So this next one could be similar, worse or better. It is just unknown.
Take Care hope you both enjoy your summer with the family. 
Rk4

[purplechick13]

Hey All,

Were back.... everything has been going so well, Mir's pt actually got cleared to train her for 6 more weeks to get her ready for pt. The pt is only seeing her once a week now since she is doing so well. She runs on treadmill for 5-6 minutes straight does the elliptical, jumps, lunges, it's amazing. The Pt thought it would be a good idea for her to start going to the gym and using a little bit of weights. So on Monday we started, she did really well until she realized she had left her water on the treadmill on the way out. She grabbed the water and when she stepped off the right knee (NON surgical leg) popped out. She got it back in place went home, showered and then iced the knee, took some motrin and started to feel better. So she decided to go swimming with her sis and bro and again it popped out, this time the whole leg twisted and it took about 30 minutes to get it back in. She's still hobbling around. Saw ortho on Wed he's ordered another MRI to make sure no bone or cartridge broke off in there and yet another brace has been ordered but he can't do surgery on the right leg until the left leg is healed enough to hold all of her weight and how can we completely strengthen the left leg if the right leg is gonna pop out every-time she works out. ARGH! Softball training is right around the corner too. It starts in October, she wants to get 1 year of softball under her belt before the next surgery. This is her freshmen year and she's afraid if she doesn't make the team this year it will be hard to make it next year.

[schinz]

Hey All,

Were back.... everything has been going so well, Mir's pt actually got cleared to train her for 6 more weeks to get her ready for pt. The pt is only seeing her once a week now since she is doing so well. She runs on treadmill for 5-6 minutes straight does the elliptical, jumps, lunges, it's amazing. The Pt thought it would be a good idea for her to start going to the gym and using a little bit of weights. So on Monday we started, she did really well until she realized she had left her water on the treadmill on the way out. She grabbed the water and when she stepped off the right knee (NON surgical leg) popped out. She got it back in place went home, showered and then iced the knee, took some motrin and started to feel better. So she decided to go swimming with her sis and bro and again it popped out, this time the whole leg twisted and it took about 30 minutes to get it back in. She's still hobbling around. Saw ortho on Wed he's ordered another MRI to make sure no bone or cartridge broke off in there and yet another brace has been ordered but he can't do surgery on the right leg until the left leg is healed enough to hold all of her weight and how can we completely strengthen the left leg if the right leg is gonna pop out every-time she works out. ARGH! Softball training is right around the corner too. It starts in October, she wants to get 1 year of softball under her belt before the next surgery. This is her freshmen year and she's afraid if she doesn't make the team this year it will be hard to make it next year.

Glad to hear things are going well on operated leg and sorry to hear about the other leg right now.  I just have a quick question.  My daughter's surgeon suggested 6-8 weeks between the two surgeries if we don't have them both done at once.  He indicated that would be enought time to allow healing for full weight on the first one and toe touching on the 2nd one.  Obviously it would be slow going, but I am trying to figure out, if your daughter is running 6 minutes on the treadmill, why that leg couldn't hold her weight WITH CRUTCHES  for the second one to get done?  I am trying to udnerstand just where someone has to be before they can get the second one done.  Thanks!!

[smillie]

When you're on crutches, the good leg has to do a lot of work. The crutches take the weight off of your surgical leg, but you have to pick them up to move them while all of your weight is on your non-surgical leg. Every time you get up out of a chair or bed or sit back down in the chair or bed, your non-surgical leg is holding all of your weight--while bending and straightening. Every step you go up or down is done with all of the weight being supported on your non-surgical leg through the range of motion. If you're standing still, usually you're standing there with your weight all on your non-surgical leg and the crutches are mainly helping with balance. When you have a TTT surgery (that is what you're talking about, right?) the bone might be ready to support your weight by 6-8 weeks, but most people don't have the quad strength by then to support all of their weight to this extent, especially going through the range of motion. I'm not saying it can't be done, but that could be the reason for some surgeons wanting to wait longer before doing the second leg.

[Rknees4]

Schinz
If it was my kid I would wait 6 months or longer.  As an old fogie I waited over a year and the first op knees still kicked up a stink, but that being said it is your choice.  I would wait at least 12 to 15 weeks on the short end.  Good luck
Rknees4

[schinz]

Rknees4 and Smillie...thanks for the explanation.  It makes perfect sense now.  I wasn't thinking muscle at all....duh!!!  And no, I am talking femoral rotational osteotomy, not TTT.  Thanks again for the explanation....that's why I love these boards.

[smillie]

Ah...I was thinking TTT because that is what Miranda had done. I don't know how the muscles react for the femoral rotational osteotomy. Maybe it's not as much of an issue? You could always talk to some of the girls who've had that sort of thing done, though. Maybe check out some post-op diaries and see how they were feeling at the 6 week mark.