Appointment with Dr. Nelson

On Monday we saw Dr. Nelson. It's always great seeing him. Its like seeing an old friend we haven't seen for a while. He looked at Amaya's x-rays, had her walk and run down the hall, then looked at her knee on the examination table. He said her knee is very elastic and has a lot of movement. He said that was normal considering her knee (he reminded us that she had no ACL to start with. Dr. Nelson performed the superknee surgery on her knee when she was five to correct her knee instability). He said that the ligaments in there have gotten loose.

He said that Amaya's knee needs surgery to correct it. He said that he wants to wait until she's fourteen to do it. That way it will last her into adulthood. He said if he does it before then, then the knee may get loose again and she would need another surgery.

Dr. Nelson said to continue to go to physical therapy to learn therapy exercises (to learn exercises that she can do at home to strengthen her knee). He said he doesn't see a need to extend therapy after this prescription because Amaya does such a great job at doing her exercises at home.

He said the pain she is feeling is normal, considering her knee. He said that the muscles are working to compensate for the loose ligaments. He said right now we need to focus on pain management. She'll use her knee brace, therapy exercises, Motrin for pain, hot and ice packs.  He said that's pretty much all we can do right now. We will follow up with him in a year and then he'll look at leg length x-rays to determine how she's growing and any next steps.

The good news is that he didn't see anything wrong with the bones in her knee. Dr. Nelson was very happy with the range of motion in her knee -10 degrees to 150+ (that means her leg lays completely flat, and over extends a little bit, and when it bends it bends completely so that her shin touches her thigh). Considering she's had a leg lengthening that's great!