Here's the report on our visit to
Johns Hopkins and Dr. Michael Ain,
Orthopedic Surgeon Specializing in Skeletal Dysplasias:
We arrived in Fairfax Station, Virginia on Thursday the 19th to stay with
Jackie Haun and family. They have a 4 year old girl who kept Frances
occupied on Friday of our appointment. Friday morning we head into
Baltimore
leaving ourselves plenty of time due to the tunnel explosion and water main
break that the city of Baltimore so kindly provided prior to our arrival. We
were already a little nervous and that was icing on the cake. But, we had
no
trouble getting into town and finding the Out Patient Center. Arrived at
11
for an 11:45 appointment checked in downstairs and waited at least an hour in
the orthopedic center before the desk people even copied our insurance card!
Charlie ate most of his snacks in the waiting area. Then we were escorted
back to an exam room where we waited another 45 mins to hour before we were
seen by Dr. Ain's resident. He manipulated Charlie around a little and
ordered X rays. I waited with Charlie in a cubicle by the X ray room for
about another hour. Charlie was Mr. Social and talked to everyone passing
down the hall by our cubicle. He was a sport in the X ray room because he
didn't have to lay down on the scary table. They took his X rays standing
up. Then we went back to the exam room and waited another hour or so,
seeing
Dr. Ain moving from room to room with other patients. He peeked in our
room
to assure us that he would see us soon and Charlie's comment was, "You're
little!" He said, "You got it!" and off he went to see
other patients. (For
those who don't know, Dr. Ain is a little person himself, a quite famous
little person, the only orthopedic surgeon little person in the country, so
far). In the meantime, Charlie polished off the last of the snacks and
John
and I hadn't had anything to eat ourselves. I kept waiting for the melt
down, but Charlie was great. It never came. Finally, Dr. Ain came in
our
tiny room with his resident, medical student and some other gal. He
manipulated Charlie every which way, watched him walk and run, and asked us
some questions. The out come is this: Charlie does need an operation
to
straighten his legs. We will schedule it for January probably. We
will need
to be in Baltimore for 3-4 days in hospital, and then stay near town for
another couple of days. There is a place near the hospital for parents to
reserve a room to sleep and shower while their children are in hospital. He
will be in a cast for 8-10 weeks. X rays taken at about 4-5 weeks by our
Dr.
Madigan, FedExed to Dr. Ain for inspection and if all is well, back to
Baltimore in 4-5 weeks after that to have the casts removed.
This is as best as I can explain the procedure: He wants to do a
diagnostic
test involving injecting dye into Charlie's knee joint. It will travel up
and down his leg enabling Dr. Ain to see where the abnormalities are in
Charlie's legs, upper and lower. He will make and incision wherever he
finds
an abnormality and repair it. Resulting in straight legs immediately after
surgery. If he only needs to repair his lower legs, his casts will only go
to the top of his legs. If he has some repairs done in his upper legs, he
will be in a body cast. We won't know until he does the test. When
children
have this type of test, they are anesthetized. So, he will do this
procedure
immediately prior to surgery so that Charlie only has to be under once.
So it was a stressful day and we were famished by the time we left, around 4
in the afternoon, just around the time rush hour kicked in. We found our
way
to a fast food joint and scarfed some burgers and fries and all was well
again. Charlie weathered it better than John or I did. He was happy
as a
clam after drinking some milk.
Dr. Ain told me what I wanted to hear. That Charlie would benefit from the
operation to straighten his legs. It needs to be done soon, but not an
emergency. It would prevent future pain and discomfort due to improper
alignment of joints etc. It is a common procedure for little people
children
and Dr. Ain has done over 100 procedures already this year. He also
operated
on older little people who's complaint is mostly spinal compressions. He
works closely with a neurologist for those operations. Spinal compressions
are something we may or may not have to worry about as Charlie gets older.
It's comforting that we are starting with a doctor who can see us through
most of the problems Charlie will have. Johns Hopkins is THE place for us
to
be. John and I saw more little people that one day than we have seen in
Charlie's whole 4.5 years. We spoke to some parents and were reassured
that
we are doing the right thing for our child. We are also lucky that we have
such loving family in the area who are willing to help us through this.
Thanks Joe and Ellen!
Back to Dr. Ain.........he is a really neat person. He is confident that
he
is good at what he does and he is comfortable with his little-ness. He has
a
cute sense of humor, is athletic, super smart, a great role model for our son
to grow up knowing. He is married to a woman of regular stature and has a
child of regular stature and a little girl who is an achondroplast. We
liked
him tons. He has really answered a calling in specializing in this area
and
is very well known and respected.
Saturday we relaxed with Joe and Ellen around their pool. I have attached
some pictures for the web page. Enjoyed a great lunch and swimming. The
Haun's had a cookout for us Saturday night and we met some of their friends.
We left on the 7:10 am flight and were home by noon, exhausted!
Thanks to all who were thinking of us during this time. We will have
Charlie
straightened out, literally and figuratively by kindergarten!