07 Oct Weekend Wrap-up
After spending all day at Scottish Rite conferring with Keegan’s doctors and having an ultrasound of Keegan’s hip and leg, we still don’t know much more about the limp and funky labs plaguing the Bug this week. We repeated labs on Friday. His ANC and WBC are dropping. Again, they are going from normal to low, but that is more what we expect from Keegan than normal numbers. His liver numbers and inflammation markers looked a little better, but his D-Dimer was still elevated. The ultrasound was unremarkable, and his rheumatologist said he didn’t have any raging arthritis that she could feel on examination.
The doctors feel the most likely explanation is that Keegan has begun experiencing some bone head degeneration in his hip from chronic steroid use called avascular necrosis (AVN). It is early enough that we can’t see it on plain film x-ray, but that is a good thing. It usually isn’t visible anywhere but MRI until it has reached an excessive amount of degeneration. So, we really need an MRI to confirm this theory, which would require more anesthesia. The plan right now is to watch him at home for a few more days. If he continues to limp consistently, we will go ahead with the MRI. However, there is no real way to reverse AVN, and the best way to treat it is to stop the steroids. Obviously, that is very difficult, if not impossible, at this point with Keegan.
This weekend, he has continued to limp, but he seems to have a bit more energy. We are hoping that remains the only concerning thing for the next day while we continue to look for answers. Thank you so much for continuing to pray with us while we wait.
