“Progress” of Perthes throughout 2020

Needless to say, our 6 monthly hip check up in May didn’t happen. Everything had come to a stop including hydrotherapy and swimming lessons. Not that I was wishing to go near hospitals or public swimming pools anyway, but going from being in a pool 3 times a week to nothing for months on end has bothered me, and still does.

As referenced in previous posts, we managed to up the cycling during 2020, actually helped by lockdown and less traffic on roads, and James got a shiny new bike for his birthday, but it wasn’t as regular or disciplined as the swimming and hydro.

We’re guilty of not enforcing physio at home, something I’m going to have to try and crack as a new year resolution, given we’re in Tier 4 lockdown, so the situation isn’t going to change any time soon.

By September and having heard nothing from the Paediatrics Orthopaedic and/or Physio team, I called and asked to get a consultation. I wanted to get it done before November so we had a 12 month check up/x-ray and comparison, and hopefully confirmation that everything was ok. And also before a second wave/lockdown hit.

Thankfully we are ‘progressing’ in the right direction still, with progress now a positive rather than the negative from a couple of years ago. It’s a slow process and with nearly a year between scans, we could see a slightly greater contrast than normal, but it seems there is still more regrowth needed and I’m not clear on where we are on the timeline. How much longer is needed before it’s ‘healed’? Or will it be ongoing until James stops growing? Can it overgrow? I have heard some cases where the ball grows too big for the socket or is misshapen.

The below scans show his right (bad) hip joint compared to his left (good), and a comparison view of his right hip between Nov 2019 and September 2020. Hard to see with the untrained eye, but combined with what the Consultant tells us, we believe we can see it looking more dense, more rounded, and less black stuff!

We’re ending the year not having used the wheelchair or crutches since before lockdown. One upside I suppose of home schooling was that we had the opportunity to manage and monitor daily ourselves his physical activity. The puppy got us walking more and more, building confidence in James’ thresholds, and loving the return to school in September without a crutch in sight. Let’s hope we can continue during 2021. We’ll never know whether the lack of swimming and hydro will have had a negative impact or not, but we’ll just hope we can get back to it at some point in 2021. (Trying to convince Howard that a hot tub in the garden is the next best thing! 🙂 )

Thanks for reading and Happy New Year! Hopefully more regular posts in 2021.