Oscar Mateo's Little Leg

I thought after this appointment I would have a clear view of what way we were going with Oscar. Good news is that Oscar qualifies for lengthening surgery. Bad news is that it will be very complicated. Oscar will need four lengthening surgeries at ages 4, 7, 10, and 14 to lengthen both his femur and tibia at the same time. He will have to wear a fixator for six months each time, three of which we will need to stay in Florida for many doctors appointments and physical therapy, then come back and have the fixator removed via another surgery and that's if everything goes right. Lengthening with a fixator can have complications like pin infections, fractures, etc requiring more surgeries. Before he can have any lengthening surgery, he will need to have surgery to reconstruct his hip, knee, and ankle. All have deformities and need to have a specialize surgery called a SUPER (Systematic Utilitarian Procedure for Extremity Reconstruction) hip, knee, or ankle surgery at the age of two years old. We were also given the option of a symes amputation which would amputate the foot and leave Oscar as an above knee amputee. Although today's prosthetics are amazing they are also expensive and insurance only covers basic prosthetics so if Oscar wanted to play a sport or swim, a special prosthetic would need to be bought out of pocket for him. With kids, you must change prosthetic from 9 months to 1 year especially during growth spurts, making paying thousands of dollars for a special one seemingly impossible. Also being an above knee amputee would mean he needs a knee joint in his prosthetic, more complicated mobility wise not to mention more expensive. Surprisingly rotationplasty is not currently an option for Oscar but maybe it could be after SUPER ankle surgery. Although not aesthetically pleasing it would give him a natural knee and he would only need a below knee prosthetic. I thought it could be a good option to avoid years of surgery but give Oscar good mobility. Dr. Paley said with any of these options he would start the same way, with the super surgeries of his hip, knee, and ankle so we can postpone making a decision until after we see how this first surgery goes so we've decided to do that. In the meantime we have our prescription for a prosthetic leg so we are so excited about having it made and seeing our little Oscar walk!