Kimi is having hip surgery tomorrow.

Kimi will be having surgery tomorrow at St. Vincent's on both hips to correct her hip dysplasia.  For some background, when we adopted Kimi in February, 2011, her lower legs were EXTREMELY weak and she couldn't even raise her foot to take a step to walk forward.  She could sit with her legs in very unusual positions and could turn her left foot backwards!  After arriving home and having some tests done, we learned she had a badly tethered spinal cord, and needed some additional corrective surgery on her lower spinal cord area, that had not been done while she lived in China. 

The spinal surgery was done in May, 2011 and provided her with nerve sensation all the way down to her feet, per the Neurosurgeon.  Subsequently, we also had Kimi fitted with AFOs (ankle/foot orthotics) to make her ankles more stable.  With healing and practice, she began to walk using a reverse walker. 

Eighteen months after her sugery, in October, 2012, she began walking independently; although she still fell sometimes.  So, as of today, she has only been walking one year.  Her original Orthopedist at Riley Hospital told us in 2011 that she had hip dysplasia in both hips (the hips are slightly out of the sockets).  He was very discouraging about her ability to ever walk.  We began to see a different Orthopedist in 2012 that was highly recommended.  When we went to see him last Spring and he saw her walk independently across the room, he stated he had concerns about the walking causing stress to her hip joints which would ultimately result in arthritis in both hips.  He recommended surgery to fix the hip dysplasia.  He said her hips and femurs would need to be broken in order to position them correctly in the joints.  They would also use plates and screws to keep everything in place, that would need to be surgically removed later.  He also diagnosed a hip socket deformity on her left side that allowed her left foot to turn backwards.  He wanted to correct that also.  He said she would be in a Spica cast (body cast) for 3-6 weeks post-surgery, and would have to learn to walk again, which could take up to one year!

I had a difficult time accepting the idea of putting her through all of that...especially the part about temporarily taking away her ability to walk!  But then, late this summer, we began to see Kimi falling more and walking less.  Her teachers noticed it, too.  Our Orthopedic surgeon x-rayed Kimi's hips and the dysplasia had gotten worse. 

So we knew what we had to do. 

We have prepared Kimi as best as we can, as she still has developmental delays from her years of neglect in the orphanage.  Her speech therapist, Shelly, worked with us to create a little book explaining it all to Kimi at a level she can understand.  Kimi seems fine with it at this point in time and says she wants a blue cast - so we will see if they can accommodate her request.  She will be at Peyton Manning Children's Hospital for five days.  I plan to post updates on this blog.  Prayers are VERY MUCH appreciated for Kimi and her two surgeons.  Here are some photos of her walking progress from the Spring of 2011 to the Summer of 2013.