Leah's journey with Perthes

Hello All,

A few months ago during mid/late July Emily and Jason noticed Leah starting to limp. At first they did not think much of it because she is 7 and must be growing pains, how ever the limp never went away and seemed to only get worse. By mid August, a couple weeks before open house and school, they took her in to the doctor. They did an x-ray and it showed signs of LCPD- Legg Calve Perthes Disease.

Their minds instantly went into research mode trying to figure out what this disease might be and what the future may look like. They quickly learned that Perthes disease was a loss of blood supply to the femoral head, causing the bone to deteriorate which is why Leah has been limping. Lead has Perthes disease in her left hip. They were told Leah can not run, jump or participate in sports for the next 2-3 years.

On August 30th, they had their first of many trip to Gillettes where another x ray was done to confirm it was in fact Perthes. A couple weeks later she went to Gillettes in St. Paul where she underwent an MRI with contrast, so they could see just how much of femoral head was affected.

This past Monday September 18th, they had another visit with her Doctor where they learned her Perthes was worse than expected. About 80-90% of her left femoral head was affected by Perthes and starting to deteriorate. Leah has very little ability to stretch her left leg, leaving her left hip very stiff. Due to how tight her left hip is Leah will be getting a Petrie cast under anesthesia (both legs casted up to her hips with a bar holding her legs together) on October 4th. The cast will be on for 6 weeks. On November 14th Leah will have surgery where they will use plates and screws to move the femoral head up so that she has a better range of motion to try and keep the femoral head and round and possible while the bone continues to deteriorate.

Emily and Jason are facing a very long, emotional, heartbreaking and financially challenging road ahead, as they will need to take time off from work to care for Leah all while still taking care of their 2 year old daughter Layne!

Any contributions at all will be GREATLY appreciated to help with the enormous amount of medical bills that will be coming their way. Love to ALL and thank you so much for your support. ❤️

Click here to learn about Perthes