bekah's arm

we had a very disappointing visit with the ortho people yesterday.  by looking at all the scans and such, he determined that he really was not too keen on shaving off any bone for a few reasons:

• the cartilage is all over the place in that area and we can't mess with something that won't grow back
• there is also tendon attachments in the location as well, we could detach and reattach them, but we run the risk of the 'staples' coming lose as she grows and having to do multiple surgeries to fix the fixing
• she still has a lot of growing to do and we don't want to mess with things that are still growing if we really don't have to

there are a couple things that do need attention.  she has some bone pieces that are loose and free in the joint area that need to be removed.  also, there is a section of her joint (the inside section) where no cartilage grew back.  so she already has arthritis in her elbow joint at 7.  his best theory is that there was some vascular block during the healing process, making the rough and odd shaped elbow joint that we are seeing now.

also, he suggested the use of a compass hinge external fixater.  this will assist the tendon on the inside of the elbow joint to loosen up and possibly allow for full range of motion eventually.

he pointed out that she is only missing apx 20% of her range of motion, that is not bad, and her pain is not horrible.  doing monkey bars is not necessary, getting her strength built back up is.