Happy Birthday to Paul! What a blessing it is to have him
here with us…well, he isn’t actually here with us right now…he is up having an
MRI of his hip. Yep, he is having hip
problems…
Paul met with an orthopedic surgeon this week to discuss his
hip. The doctor is concerned that Paul
has a condition called avascular necrosis.
Basically, it is bone death caused by poor blood supply to the
area. Most common places this occurs is
in the hip and shoulder. The doctor
informed him that the chemotherapy he received along with the steroids can
cause this problem. It is amazing how
many possible side effects can occur from treatment.
Of course, it doesn’t help that when Paul was 15 years old,
he grew 6 inches in 6 weeks!!! Yep, you
read that correctly. Because of his
amazing growth spurt, he experienced a slipped epiphysis (separation
of the ball of the hip joint from the thigh bone (femur) at the upper growing
end (growth plate) of the bone). After
he had his surgery his doctor informed him he would probably require an “early”
hip replacement. Another side effect of
this happening can be avascular necrosis.
Needless to say, we might be seeing
another surgery in Paul’s near future.
We will deal with whatever it is when we find out more.
Life without out a stomach is very
challenging. Paul has problems
daily. Either the food doesn’t want to
go down or he experiences dumping syndrome.
When he has dumping syndrome it is VERY painful. He usually has to take a Lorazepam to calm
things down, but when he does he is completely wiped out and has to lay down to
sleep for awhile. Actually, naps have
become an important part of Paul’s everyday life. He is exhausted a lot! The doctors have informed us this is most
likely his “new” life.
Paul is maintaining his weight around
169 – 172 lbs. He is quite thin for his
height. Realistically, he will always be
thin. We just hope to keep him where he
is at right now.
I will update again when we know more.
