Many of you will remember that nearly 16 months ago, my daughter (who is 
now 11) broke her femur at the neck.  It was a serious fracture, 
dislocated and required surgery and three pins to repair it.  This is 
the email that I just sent to my family and friends, including my local 
homeschool group with supported me so much during this difficult time. 
It seems silly that a break could mean a more than two year recovery 
time period, but it did.  I'm glad it is nearly over.  I know we have a  
lot of medical folks on this list, so if anyone wants to see a copy of 
the xrays, they are a sight to see!  Email me if you want me to send you 
a copy of them, I took photos and I have them as jpegs. 

Many of you sent Lexie a card or postcard (and even a few presents) 
during the time she was in the body cast.  They meant more than you 
know, Lexie still has them.  They helped so much.  Thank you all!

***
Hello everyone,

This will probably be my last message.  We are, to misquote Churchill, 
at the beginning of the end of this adventure.

Two weeks ago Alex (side note, she has asked that people call her Alex 
now) had an MRI.  The MRI results are back and the news is nothing but 
good!

Lexie's femur head has not died and shows NO signs of doing so.   At 
this point we are free and clear, her femur has survived and we can drop 
that from our list of worries!

The actual break has healed completely and perfectly.  I left the 
previous message I sent below, but as I said there, there was less than 
a 10% chance of this happening, of the head being OK and not dying (due 
to blood supply being completely severed) and the severity of the 
break.  If anyone would like to see xrays of the break, let me know, I 
can send you a jpg of the image of both the break and the screws they 
inserted into her bone to keep it stable while it was healing.

The MRI confirmed that there was no underlying cause to the break.  This 
was always a concern.  They did tests in the hospital to rule out a 
tumor or cancer or brittle bone, etc., but the MRI confirmed that this 
break was simply a fluke.

Some people have asked to what I credit Lexie's (oops, Alex's) healing.  
I think it's a combination of things:  her strength of spirit, and her 
strong desire to heal and play soccer again helped her through the 
difficult process and extreme limitations;  our village of family and 
friends who supported all of us not just with prayers and healing 
thoughts and candles, but also with food and respite help, electric 
blankets and younger sibling entertainment, trips to the store and to 
the park, walking 1 1/2 miles with a body casted child, a shoulder to 
cry on and hugs;  two very special women who provided Reiki, which I 
feel was absolutely instrumental in keeping blood flowing to the head of 
the femur.  There are probably other factors that I can't name now, but 
I feel very lucky and very blessed. 

This last year has been exceedingly difficult, in many ways, but I have 
two incredibly healthy children who will be playing soccer in August and 
as long as the three of us are together, and as long as we have all of 
you,  we are going to be just fine.
Thank you all for your help, your prayers, your thoughts.   We couldn't 
have done this without you.

Joylyn

MomtoLJ wrote:

> Hello Everyone
>
> Lexie had another visit with her doctor today, one year and two days
> after her initial injury, to schedule the surgery to remove her pins.
>
> Her femur looks absolutely wonderful, just overwhelmingly perfect.  The
> doctor says that her bone is as good as new.  I'm almost crying as I
> write this, as there was such a small chance that this would happen, and
> such a good chance that the bone would die or that it wouldn't heal
> properly.  It was very much a possibility that Lexie would be walking
> for the rest of her life using a cane or walker, so the fact that the
> doctor stated today that after healing from the surgery next month,
> there is absolutely no reason Lexie can't go back to 100%, to what she
> was before the injury--well, we are feeling very happy today with that
> news.
>
> Lexie's surgery will be Feb 3, at 8am.  It should be a day surgery with
> her going home that afternoon, but she may need to spend the night. 

> We'll get a wheel chair and a walker (but no hospital bed, yeah!), and
> she'll be no weight on that leg for six weeks, and then slowly working
> back to full weight and activity over the next months.  She should be
> running again in late June, so she will have time to prep for August and
> soccer season.  Her goal is to play goalie in September, and I am sure
> she'll make it!  It will be another year or longer before she can attain
> her next goal, to be back to 100%, but the fact that it will be possible
> is good enough for us, and we'll just work hard to get there.
>
>
> Joylyn
>

>  
>

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