The Story of Siobhan's Knee

Back around Christmas, Carson and I noticed a bump on Siobhan's knee. At first, we didn't think too much of it. We figured that it was just an injury from her incessant climbing. It stuck around, but we continued to shrug it off. Well, in March, I noticed that it hadn't gotten any better and, in my eyes, it actually looked worse. Well, the bells went off in my head and I decided that we needed to go into the doctor. I've known too many people who have had bad things happen as the result of a wonky, bumpy knee. It may not have been that bad, but I didn't want to take a chance.

This is what her knee looks like. Taken April 1st.

I made an appointment for her and lucky for us, one of the doctors at our pediatricians office specializes in pediatric sports medicine, so I knew that he would be the perfect person for her to see. He looked at it, poked around and did a bunch of movement tests and told us, flat out, that he didn't know what it was. So he sent us over for an x-ray to see if there was any damage. The x-ray came back negative meaning that there was nothing wrong with the bones in her knee or leg. Our doctor then referred us to a pediatric surgeon. OMGosh!

I made the appointment with a surgeon at children's hospital for the next week. We went in on April 1st and met with the good Dr. He took a look at her, did movement tests and then told us that it was out of his area of expertise as he usually deals with vital organs, not joints. So he sent us on to an Orthopedist. Luckily, he was able to get us in for that same day and it happened to be the same doctor who treated her for her broken leg so I knew he was good. Dr. Glancy took a look at her and did some really cool tests that I had never see before, like shining a flashlight against her leg to see what shadows appeared. Pretty cool. He also asked her to run up and down the hallway and walk to and from him and then watched her scale a chair with the greatest of ease. Boy, if he only knew what she scales at home on a daily basis.

When all the tests were done, we were presented with good news. She didn't have a tumor or growth or anything scary. She just has an anatomical difference in her right knee. The only thing that's wrong is that her joint capsule is loose in her right knee which causes soft tissue to get pushed into the pocket that's created when she bends her knee. It's really nothing to worry about as it doesn't bother her and doesn't effect her movement at all. He also said that if it was something scary, we would have seen other symptoms like fatique, weith loss and pain. We were instructed to keep and eye on it and if any of those symptoms come up are we notice it getting significantly bigger, we need to bring her back in. So we'll keep an eye on it, but I'm sure we have nothing to worry about.

We're so grateful that everything is okay. And while it has been a few weeks, I want to thank my family for fasting and praying on her behalf.