Shriner's

     The day we had all been waiting for finally came. Thursday morning we had our appointment with Dr. Sontora at 10:30am at Shriner's hospital, and we started getting ready to go at 8am since I now have 3 people to get ready.  I still ended up running a little late due to Austin having a freak out when I dropped him off at his cousins. It was probably due to the fact that mommy was leaving and his new little sister got to go and he didn't, poor boy. Clay had worked that morning so he was meeting us there. We ended up getting there right on time, got checked in and signed all their medical release paperwork, and by 11am we were in room #4 with our nurse. She asked us some basic questions about Ava and then had us strip her down to her diaper for the Doctor. Then Dr Sontora came in a few minutes later with 2 other doctors (nice having so much attention) and asked us a few more questions then started to look over Ava's leg.  He started pulling, stretching, and rubbing her leg. He said from the way it felt, the growth and development was all normal. He said he had to see the x-rays first, but thought we might be able to fix it without surgery.
      They sent us down to get x-rays, and while we were waiting we talked with a nice family that was waiting also. They told us they had been coming to Shriner's for five years now with their son, and they had had nothing but wonderful experiences. They said their son was born with severe Scoliosis, and by 11 months had a 89 degree curve in his spine. They were told that by that point he would have to have major surgery and have his spine fused, but they went to Shriner's and over the past 5 years they have been casting his spine and little by little they are down to a single digit curve in his spine. What a great story to hear, especially for us who are really not waiting to have our little girl go under the knife.
       The nurses came and took Ava in for her x-rays and after a few minutes of hearing her crying through the door we were back on our way to room #4. I am going to ask for a copy of her x-rays next time we go, so I can have a copy of them because they were really cool to see. Dr Sontora explained to us that all her bones in her leg, foot, and hip are formed just right. What will be her knee joint isn't lined up like it should be, but it still looks good. He said from the best he could tell the knee is the product of the positioning of leg. When she was growing with the cord around her leg her muscles were unable to pull it back down, so they started to do the opposite. Her quadriceps started to tighten and pull the leg upward, and her hamstring muscles began to loosen allowing it to pull up. This also affected the elasticity of her ligaments as well. His solution was to put her leg in a splint, and slowly over time start to bend it back the way it should go. Just like braces for your teeth, he will slowly pull the leg the correct direction and splint the leg so it stays how it should.
Then came my favorite part "Let's do this" Dr. Sontora and the 2 other doctors took us into the other room, fashioned a splint for her leg and taught us how to wrap it up. We didn't have to wait to get things going, no return appointment before we could start, he wanted to get things moving right then.....To bad we couldn't get in 2 weeks ago!

       Dr Sontora said he would like to see Ava every week to a week and a half to see how it is doing and to fashion her a new splint that will pull a little more. He explained to us that we wanted us to help her also, by unwrapping the leg 4 to 5 times a day and working with it, stretching and pulling untill she fusses at us. They gave us a few more rolls of gauze for the week and sent us to get an appointment. We were so impressed with Dr Sontora and so grateful. We were told by the scheduling lady that the clinic we were in was a 25 appointment a day clinic and we were number 29 for Dr Sontora, and after he was done with us he was flying out to Mexico to help children with problems down there. We were so impressed and really excited to start working to get Ava corrected!