Liam's Story

One year ago, Liam's life changed. He had Blount's Disease. It is now corrected, and hopefully it will never come back, but what a journey it's been.

We noticed something was wrong with Liam's legs when he was a year old.  He was our early walker-he took his first steps at 9 months old, and was running right after.  We had three other children so we knew what to expect-they start walking, within a couple of months their legs straighten.  Liam's didn't.  Something just didn't look right, so we talked to his pediatrician at his one year check up.  She told us not to worry and sent us on our way. 

At 15 months, Shawn and I just KNEW something wasn't right.  We didn't feel like we were being alarmist, and we refused to take "he'll outgrow it" for an answer.  His pediatrician agreed to send him to an orthopedist for xrays.  After seeing them, that orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Wagner, said he thought Liam had Blount's Disease, but he'd never seen it in a child that young.  He then referred us to see a pediatric orthopedist, Dr. Bixler.  Dr. Bixler did measurements on Liam's bones-he had an 11 degree curve in his tibia.  Nine degrees and lower is never Blount's Disease, 14 degrees and higher is always Blount's.  He was ready to tentatively diagnose Liam with Blount's, but he couldn't be definite until Liam was 2 years old. 

We were told to come back when he turned two to get the necessary measurements.  We were in hurry up and wait mode.

To be continued...