Trickling Sand

Celebrating Amelia’s 7th birthday at SickKids was definitely not on my bingo card for 2025, but that was what happened. I must have verbally told this story a hundred times to family, friends, and coworkers, and now I will share it on this blog for posterity. I would imagine this would be an interesting read for Amelia later on, to help her recall this stage in her early life.

In the middle of December 2024, we took Amelia skating at Celebration Square. At one point, she fell on the ice and came to us, letting us know. She is one of the toughest of the six kids and seldom cry. However, this time, she was shedding a few tears. So, we knew it was a painful experience for her. After we got home, we found her not willing to walk and resorted to crawling around the house. I found it quite funny and didn’t think too much of it at the time.

After a few days had passed, she gradually got better and was back to her normal self, with the exception of some residual pain as she walked. It was not obvious, and if you had not known about her injury, you would probably not have noticed the limp with which she walked. It wasn’t until about 2 weeks after the fall that we started being concerned that she was still limping around. Renee took her to the pediatrician and after a brief visit, the doctor concluded that there was no fracture and she should get better with time. We were somewhat relieved hearing this.

Fast forward another week or so and the limp still had not gone away and so Renee took her back to the doctor a second time. This time, he ordered an x-ray. The results came back and it showed that Amelia had a lesion 8 cm long at the top of her right femur, close to the hip. The lesion was likely a bone cyst, which is a fluid-filled sac inside the bone. So, instead of bone material, there was a pocket of fluid. Hence, the bone would be weaker than a healthy bone. If left untreated, the bone could fracture if she had a big enough fall. In fact, as we found out later, there was a small crack in her femur, likely caused by her fall during skating.

We are blessed with having so many medical professionals in our lives that we quickly got expert opinion, thanks to my friend Ben, himself an anesthesiologist and who works with a number of orthopedic surgeons. Coupled with the help of our friends, ChatGPT and Gemini, we quickly became bone cyst experts ourselves! 😂 The situation was a bit daunting. As we learned, Amelia will need surgery to have the cyst removed and a good chance that she will need hardware (metal plates or rods) installed on/in her bone to provide additional support. The road to recovery would not be short, meaning she won’t be able to walk for some time after the surgery. To add to our worry about Amelia’s wellbeing was the fact that we had booked a trip with the whole family plus my parents to Rome in 2 months’ time. The worst case scenario would be for Renee, Amelia, the other younger kids, and I to stay behind, and let my parents take the older kids on the trip. To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about the trip at this moment.

We got referred by Amelia’s pediatrician to SickKids Hospital and had an appointment within the week. We met Dr. Sevan Hopyan at SickKids Hospital on January 20, 2025. He was a nice and softspoken man and he explained to us what we pretty much already knew. As we spoke, he looked at the x-ray and decided that the best course of option was to have the cyst removed by curettage (basically scraping away the cyst) and inserting 2 flexible intramedullary nails into the femur for support. What he said next did surprise us; he told us that he’d like to do the surgery that Thursday (3 days from that day)! We paused for a bit and realized that it was going to be Amelia’s 7th birthday. I guess it was God’s idea of a birthday present for Amelia. We were, at the same time, elated that we could get a surgery date so soon, and also sorry that our little girl had to celebrate her birthday in a hospital.

The next couple of days were really hard for me. On one hand, I knew the surgery was needed and was the best option to get Amelia back to her old self. On the other, I was saddened by the fact that she actually needed to go through the surgery and faced a long road of recovery ahead. I could not help but think of the Book of Job. This Old Testament book tackles the problem of bad things happening to good people. The one-sentence summary of the book is that the problem of evil is a mystery. We cannot understand the will of God, and so we’re left with a choice of either succumbing to anger towards Him or placing our faith in Him that somehow, a greater good can be achieved. I’m sure in due time, we will look back and be able to connect the dots of this trying episode.

On January 22nd, we went to Swiss Chalet for dinner to celebrate Amelia’s birthday one day early. It was a bittersweet evening for me, but for Amelia, I could not spot even a hint of sadness, worry, or fear. We had explained to her on multiple occasions the procedure and how she would not be allowed to walk for a a couple of months. Yet, she was very nonchalant about the whole thing. That was my Amelia. She has always been a very independent girl, not needing much attention from us and still exceling in school and other activities.

Her surgery was scheduled at 8:00 am on January 23. We woke up at 4:45 am that day and had an uneventful drive downtown. We got to the hospital at quarter to six and promptly checked in. The staff at SickKids were wonderful and worked so well with kids. Upon realizing it was Amelia’s birthday, one of the nurses got her a brand new drawing board as a birthday gift. After being seen by a few nurses and doctors, it was time for Amelia to go into the operating room at around 7:50. It was then that she realized we needed to part. At that moment, I noticed her countenance changed and anxiety set in. One of the nurses for the operation was a very animated person and quickly made Amelia feel more comfortable. He told a few jokes and even offered to carry her to the operating room. Amelia’s eyes immediately lit up and she climbed into his arms. She was having so much fun that as they walked past a set of doors into the restricted area where we could not follow, she did not even turn around to look for us. As tears welled up in our eyes, that same nurse told her, “Wave bye to mom and dad.” She turned to look at us with a big smile on her face and waved goodbye.

We then walked over to the waiting room where we got comfortable for the next 4 hours. Although I had nothing to do except waiting, my mind was just not there to do anything productive. While I brought my work computer there, I was just not in the frame of mind to do anything work related. Her surgery was supposed to be 4 hours long. As noon inched closer, we closely watched the TV in the waiting room for the status of her surgery to change. Noon came and gone and we started to worry. Was something wrong? Did her femur fracture during the surgery, necessitating a cast to be made and fitted? I walked around the hospital, trying to distract myself from these intrusive thoughts. Finally, her anesthesiologist walked in and told us that the surgery went as planned and they did not experience any complications. Soon after, we met Dr. Shalin Shah, a clinical fellow who also participated in Amelia’s surgery, and Dr. Hopyan. They further explained the positive results of the surgery and brought Renee to the recovery room.

For the next few hours, Amelia was recovering in her room. She was a bit groggy and still very tired. She kept closing her eyes and drifting off back to sleep. After a few hours, she was fully awake and even started playing on her tablet. When it came to dinnertime, we were thoroughly impressed by the menu of the hospital kitchen. You can actually call and order a la carte items. Although this was the case, Amelia didn’t have a big appetite so we just ordered some jello and soup.

The doctor prescribed Tylenol and Advil to be taken simultaneously for the next few days, and if necessary, morphine as well. Of course, we were trying to avoid morphine as much as possible due to its side effects, including drowsiness, nausea and constipation. Fortunately, Amelia did not complain about pain unless we were moving her leg. By 9 pm, I had to leave as only one parent was allowed to stay overnight. That night, neither Renee nor Amelia got uninterrupted rest as the nurses had to come in to check in on her every couple of hours.

The next day, I returned with my parents at around 10 am. Amelia was doing well and by late morning, we were told that she was going to be discharged, as her condition was stable. We ended up buying a wheelchair and a walker from the Shoppers Drug Mart inside SickKids. Thank goodness, Renee and my work health insurance plan covered the cost. By 3:30 pm, we were able to leave the hospital. Transferring Amelia into and out of the car proved to be a challenge as it was fairly painful for her. As I mentioned, she seldom cried, and so, when she started crying during the transfer, I knew how painful it must have been for her.

The kids were so happy to see her when we got home. Her school got her some balloons and a get well card signed by everyone in her class. That was so sweet! We settled her on a mattress that we brought to the first floor from our basement guest room. That would be her bed for next few weeks since we didn’t want to have to move her up and down the stairs.

For the first two weeks, Amelia used the wheelchair quite extensively, but as time passed, she became very proficient at using her walker and was hopping everywhere. Her recovery was very apparent as she made progress everyday. On February 24, we went back to SickKids for the post-op appointment. Dr. Hopyan and Dr. Shah told us that she was right on track with the recovery. She had a crack in her femur before, but that has healed fully. They thought that she would be able to start putting partial weight on her leg in another 2 weeks and start walking fully on it after 4 weeks. Now would be the time to really start exercising her leg so that she would be ready for that. We are so happy that the surgery was a success and Amelia is well on her way back to a full recovery.

Although things have gone well so far, we remain cautious. Dr. Hopyan told us that in about 30% of the cases, the cyst will come back, which would require a second surgery. Even if that did not happen, they would need to operate again to remove the 2 nails from her femur as her leg grows. So, as much as we want this to be over quickly, this saga is not over. That said, we are grateful for how things have gone and we truly believe it was due to the prayers of all the angels (you) around us. We are also very appreciative of Dr. Hopyan, Dr. Shah, and all of the doctors, nurses, and physiotherapists at SickKids Hospital who helped Amelia.

If you want to send Amelia a few words of encouragement, please leave a comment below. I will show them to her!