Thanks so much to all of you who have been praying for Titus! At the end of July he had a second visit to Shiner’s Hospital in Erie and we were told that he probably has Perthes Disease. It is a condition where for some reason the blood flow to the hip joint stops and the joint begins to deteriorate. Then at some point, blood flow resumes and the joint begins to regrow. At that appointment the doctor told us to come back in two weeks. In the mean time, Titus was not supposed to run or jump!! We wanted to give you an update from his latest appointment on August 14.
Basically it’s a still a waiting game! The doctor was happy to see that he wasn’t limping, however we won’t know anything conclusive until September 11. Several different doctors have looked at his x-rays with differing opinions – a hip specialist thinks he definitely could have Perthes but another x-ray specialist thinks the x-rays look normal.
It seems that there are two possibilities for what is going on with Titus’ hip. The first possibility is that he had some sort of virus that settled in his hip. If that is the case, his next x-ray in September should show that his hip is back to normal. The second possibility is that he does indeed have Perthes Disease. In that case, the next x-ray should show more deterioration of his hip joint.
So, now what? Well, for another 3 weeks Titus is not supposed to run or jump. For a 3 year old boy that is a tall order! They’ve been making lots of Lego creations!
Will you please continue to pray for Titus and our whole family? Our Creator God who made his body knows what is going on and we trust that He has everything in control. Of course, we are praying that God would heal Titus’ hip and that when we go back in September everything would be normal. As you join us in praying for Titus, would you also pray that God would be glorified through all of this – no matter the outcome?
On a funny note – a few nights ago we were praying before bed and Luke asked God to make Titus’ hip better and that he wouldn’t have "Hershey’s Disease". We had a good laugh over that and explained to him that it was called Perthes Disease!