Hope

Today was finally the day I had my appointment with the orthopedic surgeon to find out what we're going to do about my heterotopic ossification (HO).  My doctor had told me that it is normal to wait 12 to 18 months after the onset of HO before attempting the surgery.

The orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Bynum was very nice, and seemed generally concerned for my welfare, but admitted that he was not as versed in HO as he could have been.  He did advise me that research shows the drug prescribed by my doctor is not as effective as Aleve in stopping new bone growth, so I'm switching to Aleve.

The other thing he told me is that, as my doctor suggested, they can't attempt the surgery until the HO stops forming new bone, but he did say that it's unlikely to take 12 to 18 months.  I have an appointment with a different surgeon who specializes in HO in 3 months, presumably to assess whether bone has stopped forming.  Eighteen months seems like an eternity to spend as broken as I am right now, but 3 seems like a manageable goal.  That's how I'm going to choose to look at it.  That's the only way I'm going to get through this.  My next appointment is on 10/18, but Dr. Bynum said he would brush up on current HO research and call me with his findings in the next week in case there's a different drug I should be on or anything else I should be doing.  He said that he found a very small study (7 participants) that indicated a certain intravenous drug might be extremely effective, but he wants to do more research before he recommends that.

So to summarize, we have to wait for the HO to stop growing new bone before we can consider doing the surgery.  We're going to check on it in 3 months.  The surgeon that I will be meeting with is a Dr. Danners, and reports are that he is an expert in HO, but Dr. Bynum will be researching whether there is anything I can be doing in the meantime.

I also want to take a moment to mention my friend Gus, who, along with the rest of his family, have given me more help and support than I could ever have the right to expect.  They have come over almost every night that nobody else is here, and helped with literally anything I need.  They have given me hope that maybe I can get through this thing without ending up in a nursing home, and if they help me see this thing through to the end, I will have a debt I can never adequately repay.