I posted on facebook yesterday about Sam having a bone scan and it became clear that we hadn't done the best job at keeping the world informed of the goings-on around here. Thought it might best to set the record straight and get us all on the same page.
Sam limps. That's the short answer. He's actually been limping...for 8 months. At least that's as far back as we can remember. We can distinctly remember talking about it around Mother's Day 2012 but it could have been happening before. And I remember, even then, not knowing why he was limping. We've watched him over the course of that time -- some days his limp is BAD and other days it's non-existent. Some days he'll tell me his leg hurts and other days he'll only identify pain if asked and other days he looks at you like you've grown an extra appendage when quizzed about his leg.
Christmas this year brought inquiries from lots of people...enough inquiries that we decided that maybe we should take him to the doctor. We fully expected to be told it was a high ankle sprain or some "no big deal" thing. We first visited our pediatrician. She poked and prodded and could find nothing definitive, and though he limped into the office and out of the office, when she asked him to walk he did so without a limp. Her assessment: send him to the orthopedic doctor. So we made an appointment. Again, Sam limped in so severely that the nurse was worried he shouldn't be walking at all. We x-ray'd and examined and again, when the doctor asked him to walk, skip, jump, and balance, Sam did so without a problem. "Normal gait" was the observation. I cried. My son is limping for everyone except the doctor. Our ortho decided to order blood tests to rule out infections and other illnesses; words like "muscular dystrophy" and "leukemia" floated around and I held my breath for 3 days waiting those test results. All were normal. And in case anyone's keeping track, that's the third time in his short 5 years of life we've heard it might be cancer for Sam. So tired of that.
Because Sam was still limping and the x-rays and blood work came back all clear, the doctor ordered a 3 phase bone scan. We waited 2 weeks for the first available appointment. Then we ventured to Texas Children's where they injected him with radioactive dye and took pictures of his pelvis, legs and feet. Then we waited 3 hours and took more pictures to see how the dye had been absorbed into his bones. A fascinating test, really; I was amazed at the technology. We weren't sure how to even pray for that scan. We didn't want them to find anything but we also weren't sure we didn't want them to not find anything either, weren't sure we wanted to go the next step.
Bone scan results come back quickly -- we received a call from our ortho last night. The bone scan was clear except for a slight abnormality that indicated a change in weight bearing. Basically -- the scan showed that Sam limps. Now we are being referred to a pediatric rheumatologist. The kicker -- there are only 4 pediatric rheumatologists in Houston so the wait is super long to get an appointment. I can't actually call and make an appointment; our referring doctor has to do that for me. Fortunately, because my God's not a God of coincidence, one of my best friends has a sister-in-law who is a pediatric rheumatologist, and although she practices in New Orleans, has been great about answering the zillion questions I've had.
The good news, from our ortho and our pediatrician and our friend -- it's probably not a big deal. All of Sam's tests are good, great in fact. And he's healthy and active and "normal" (Sam's never been normal a day in his life but from a medical perspective we'll take it). We'll pursue this new direction and see what happens. And we'll try not to worry. Because we know who goes before us and who is our rear guard.
