Post OCS: Diagnosis

Sorry for the delay in updates. The past few days have been stressful.

Matthew and I went to the orthopedist on Wednesday afternoon. The doctor determined via the MRI and the corresponding report from DMAFB that he has three fractures in his pelvis, not his hip as we previously thought. He also has significant edemas surrounding the fractures. The fractures are approximately located where I have put red marks on the picture below:

The doctor is very enthusiastic about his recovery thus far and wants him to continue to rest and work out in the pool for the next 5 weeks. The fractures have already begun to heal and the pain he is experiencing now is mostly muscular. No additional pain medication is needed at this time aside from over-the-counter solutions.

The referrals regarding his foot haven't been approved yet, so we are still a couple weeks out from knowing anything about that.

The x-ray taken of his shin at DMAFB indicated that nothing is broken and everything looks okay.

We have a follow-up appointment in 5 weeks with the orthopedist for the pelvis. At that point he will determine if progress has been made and if formal physical therapy is necessary. If the foot referrals go through, the orthopedist will also take a look at that data, as well. We are working on getting the x-rays from Quantico so the doctor can compare the MRI with the x-ray, as Matthew and I are still concerned about stray bones floating around near his hip joint. There didn't appear to be bone fragments in the MRI, but they are not the best diagnostic method for bone analysis. The x-ray in Quantico indicated an acetabular injury, so we have conflicting diagnoses regarding the hip, at the moment.

I will say that I am most relieved that his prognosis is so positive! However, I cannot say that I enjoyed the way we were treated at the orthopedist. We spent an hour waiting to speak to him and he couldn't wait to brush us off for his next, presumably more important, patient. My grandma once told me regarding doctors: "you have to be your own advocate". Truer words have never been said! If we hadn't been researching, studying and forming questions about this subject, he would be in much worse shape than he is.