The Thigh Bone's Connected To The Hip Bone....

Oh boy, what an eventful Sunday morning we had. Instead of being in church like we would have all liked, we spent the morning (and afternoon) in the pediatric emergency care unit. Let me back up a little to explain...
On Thursday my son said his leg hurt. He hadn't fallen or suffered any kind of trauma that I'm aware of, so I just dismissed it as growing pains. By Friday morning he was crying in pain and said he couldn't walk. Well, he is a 5 yr old boy, so a little pain wasn't going to keep him in bed all day. Within an hour he was walking on his own, but still with a limp. He said it didn't hurt at all, so I didn't think much more of it. Saturday morning he was still limping, but still said he had no pain. That's when we took a closer look at his legs. We had him stand straight with his legs together and we noticed that his left leg looked "twisted" from the hip to the knee. Everything is closed here on Saturdays and he was running and jumping around like there was nothing wrong at all, so we waited until Sunday morning to get him to the doctor.
Today when we went in the doctor agreed that there was definitely something wrong with his left hip. They ordered blood work, x-rays, and sent him to an orthopedic surgeon for evaluation. They've narrowed it down to two things. The first is "Transient Synovitis", which could be from a virus (that we never knew he had). From what I can gather over the internet, nobody knows how or why this happens.... it's just a name they can give to unexplained hip pain in children. If this is all it is, he should be back to normal within a few days, but will still be followed up on. The other possibility is "Perthes Disease". I think I've figured this one out in layman's terms. The blood supply to the femoral head (top of thigh bone) is restricted and the femoral head dies and collapses. The dead bone cells are reabsorbed by the body and a new femoral head grows. The problem is getting the head to grow back in the right shape and position. This takes lots of physical therapy, and sometimes casts or surgery, etc. They don't know how or why this happens either, but it happens most in boys my son's age and with our ethnicity. Right now we were sent home with ibuprofen and orders to "wait and see". The orthopedic surgeon want to see him back in 10 days.
Of course, prayers are always appreciated. Honestly, we are not worried about this at all. My son is not in pain, so this soothes my soul immensely. But we also know that God is in control and we will be looking for ways to glorify HIM through anything that happens to us. And really, if you had your pick of diseases to choose from, this is not one to be scared of.

Now, I can't leave you on a solemn note, so I'll throw in a funny story here. It seems that whenever my son gets in a hospital he says something to keep us laughing. When he went for his biopsy last year he told the nurse (in his drugged-up state), "You're fat!" Today the doctor was showing my son his hip x-rays and asked him if he knew what part of his body he was looking at. Now, in case you haven't looked at a hip x-ray recently, I've found a generic sample to show you. Keep this in mind when you hear my son's answer:
He said, "That's my brain! And there's my eyes, and my nose!" I'm sure he was confused as to why everyone in the room was laughing so hard.