Rex Kaase

First post: Nov 3, 2016 Latest post: Feb 28, 2017
Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement. Thank you for visiting. 


I'm putting this site up because so many people care about Rex and this will be the most effective and efficient way to let people know how he does during this journey. I'm realizing already that there are so many people who want to know what is going on. I'm thankful that this is not a life threatening situation. 


We noticed over the last month or so that Rex's gait seemed really off. He's limped some over the years and we thought he had an ankle issue, . He sprained his ankle a while back and we were to start PT on the ankle earlier this month. When I went to schedule the PT, Rex told me that it wasn't his ankle that was hurting, it was actually his hip. This was confusing to me, but I was glad he told me.


I made an appointment with my wonderful chiropractor, Dr. Green, who has helped me immensely with my hip (I had massive hip surgery in 2003 to repair hip dysplasia). I thought perhaps he had some sort of SI joint dysfunction due to limping on the ankle.  After Dr. Green examined him, he told me that he didn't want to adjust him and that he wanted Rex to go have some X-rays done. Dr. Green doesn't order X-rays on too many folks so I knew he was concerned. 


On Monday, October 17th we went for X-rays on the right hip and Dr. Green called the next day letting us know that the radiologist had preliminarily diagnosed Rex with hip dysplasia in the right hip. We were really surprised, despite my history. He suggested that we see our pediatrician who would likely send us on to and orthopedic specialist. 


We saw our pediatrician, Dr. Wanebo on Wednesday, the 19th and she was dismayed and shocked by the right hip X-ray. She worked to get us into an orthopedic specialist quickly. In the mean time Rex was told to lay out of PE, swim and basically anything rambunctious! He also got a coveted elevator pass for school because carrying 25 pounds of books and backpack up and down the stairs is now out of the question for him.


We saw the orthopedic specialist this morning, Dr. Davino at Richmond Bone and Joint. Fortunately they were able to take us quickly. After taking more X-rays, this time of both sides, not just the right. Dr. Davino was flabbergasted at how severe his hips were. He showed us the X-rays and the left hip actually sits outside of the hip socket! In fact there is not really a hip socket to speak of on his left side. The right does have a bit of a socket, but it is getting arthritic from so much bone on bone contact. He is in some pain on the right side, but not on the left, which is odd, but the body is such and amazing and miraculous creation.


Dr. Davino is sending us to Dr. Alfred Mansour, one of the top specialists in complex hip problems in children in the city. We feel blessed to have such an amazing doctor to look after Rex. Dr. Mansour is on staff with the Rockets and was an NCAA swimmer back in his day. :-) We see him on November 2. 


Rex will likely have surgery to not only re-position the femoral heads on both sides, but also re-structure the pelvis to create sockets for the heads to go into. Most people ask if he is going to have hip replacement and the answer is likely no. They typically don't do replacements on kids because the replacement wears out over time which would mean multiple replacements over a life time. The surgery he will have will preserve his natural hip and will last much longer than a replacement. 


We are hoping that if surgery is needed (and we've been told that it is) that it could possibly take place before Thanksgiving so that he can use the holiday as part of his recovery time. I will update again after the appointment on the 2nd.

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