Made the trip to the hip specialist at Methodist yesterday. Ethan has a large (size of a plum) osteoma (bone mass) at the site where the track injury occurred back in the spring of 07. The pelvis broke at the ishcial tuberosity (lower part you sit on). It was pulled apart at the growth plate and the degree of separation was too great to allow it to heal. So for 3 and a half years he has been forming new bone and scar tissue in that area. It is against his sciatic nerve which is causing a lot of his pain.
Doc said that this would be a "big surgery" and not one that they see very often. Because of the proximity of the mass to that main nerve it will be a risky procedure. Also big risk of infection and long, painful recovery from the scraping away of that bone. He will have to take medication for awhile to prevent more unwanted bone growth in that area as he heals. He said it was a big decision for us to make...but basically we are damned if we do and damned if we don't.
This doc also looked at the mri's of his spine and did not like the brace he is in so he asked if I would like him to send us for a second opinion. We will see a different spine specialist on the 23rd. If that spine dr. clears him for surgery on his hip at that time, we will schedule it right away.
Still no answers as to why he has a broken back. Hoping this new doctor will be able to figure that out. This hip doctor from yesterday did say that the vertebrae below the one that is broken has a congential abnormality and could possibly have contributed to the break. That would be fantastic news. Would love to get the big "C" word off the table.
So... in light of everything we have going right now, we made a major decision. As of Friday we have sold the business. SSL Sports is now under new ownership. We will transition everything over during the course of the next couple weeks. This is the local business. We will continue to do all of our university fraternity/sorority business under it's own name. It was a very difficult thing to do but when we were approached by a buyer we knew it needed to happen. The kids come first and really nothing else matters.
