Patient Stories
Health Connect: A Patient Story About Strength and Recovery
Meet Jaiden, the unstoppable 12-year-old who was born with a leg abnormality and is now redefining what’s possible! He’s overcome three leg surgeries, and with the help of the CHDC Physical Therapy team, can enjoy playing his favorite sports. In this interview, we spoke with Jaiden's mom, Meghan, to get her perspective on Jaiden's patient journey.
What brought you to CHDC and how long have you been a patient here?
Meghan: Jaiden’s been a patient for a long time. We were a patient here before physical therapy, but we came back for physical therapy because Dr. Musket used to be Jaiden’s EI (Early Intervention) Therapist in our house when he was an infant. Dr. Musket has known Jaiden for probably closer to 12 years, he was maybe six months old when we first started working with him.
What services have you used?
Meghan: I actually used to work here, and it was convenient to have my kids come in for their doctors’ appointments and their dental visits. And I like how they integrate medical and dental, so I kept them as patients here. As we progressed with Jaiden’s surgeries, we ended up needing physical therapy and called in.
What experience at CHDC has made the most positive impact?
Meghan: When I was pregnant with Jaiden, I found out at my 20-week anatomy scan that his leg was not normal. The doctors couldn’t tell exactly what it was until after he was born. He’s missing his fibula in his right leg and his femur up top was short and curved. The whole leg had deformity to it. We had gotten a first opinion, and they suggested the amputation.
He was just a couple weeks old at that point, so we got another opinion at Dupont [Nemours Children’s Hospital]. They offered these lengthening surgeries which is what he’s going through now; he’s on his third one! The first two were external fixators which we saw Matt through the recovery of, and now this one is internal on his femur. They lengthened five centimeters of it now. We have three more lengthening sessions, and on the x-ray last week he was already up 5 centimeters.
How has Jaiden's physical therapy improved his recovery?
Meghan: The bone is broken and that’s what we’re lengthening. The bone is being separated and new bone is growing in there, but the muscles aren’t. There’s nothing extending the muscles, so if we didn’t do therapy, the rod would actually pop his hip out of place. We have to keep his knee able to flex all the way out and in. That’s what we’re doing here with Dr. Musket. He uses the lasers and Short Wave Diathermy (SWD) for bone healing. The doctors [at DuPont] are really impressed with how good his bone quality is. We are going to see his orthopedic specialist, Louise Nichols, MD, next week and we’ll be done lengthening at that time, so she’ll tell us how we can proceed with weight-bearing on the leg.
What advice would you give to someone experiencing the same thing you were, as a parent?
Meghan: I honestly was not expecting to hear that they could do this, save the leg completely, but to me, I just wasn’t okay with amputating right away without seeing what he could do on his own.
I really wanted to look for a doctor that would at least give him time to see if he could walk on his leg on his own. That’s why we went for a second opinion, but it was still a hard decision to make because of watching him go through these surgeries. Once he’s done and we get him back to normal, he doesn’t even think about it anymore. I don’t think it’s ever a bad idea to get a second or third opinion.
The surgeries always set him back, but we get him up and going again. He plays basketball, baseball, and wants to do lacrosse this season. He’s very athletic, he loves sports. He springs back pretty quick as long as we keep at it.
How is CHDC different from other healthcare providers that you have been to?
Meghan: Dr. Musket really dedicates time and effort into what needs to be done. He doesn’t just try to get you in here and get you out. He makes sure we get they flexibility that we need. He uses all of these different tools here that are awesome, and I feel like they’re helping his recovery a lot. A lot of physical therapy offices don’t have things like the therapy lasers, so that stands out for sure. Dr. Musket is just really involved with patients and once Jaiden is weight-bearing, Matt helps Jaiden do things that he enjoys too.
A lot of people don’t know what to do with kids, they’re almost afraid to hurt them. Matt isn’t afraid to push them. He never does too much, he knows the limits of his patients and that’s great to have. He makes a huge difference.
What is one word that reminds you of CHDC?
Meghan: I want to say passionate. I never thought we would still have Dr. Musket as his physical therapist. There was time, a good two or three years, where we didn’t see him. I found him here and knew that’s where we’re going. He’s very passionate, he cares about patients, he gives a lot of good advice for us on what we can do at home and uses all the resources he has to help us.
The resources [modalities, therapy interventions, lasers, SWD, NMES, BFR, etc.] here are great. We needed more than we could get initially, and everyone here worked together to make it work so that we could fit it in with Jaiden’s school schedule and he wouldn’t be missing school all the time. He didn’t want to switch from physical therapy here to another office. And his orthopedic specialist was very adamant that he needed to be in [physical therapy] three to four times a week. After having major hip surgery and expressing that with the care team here, they just made sure he got in.
Is there anything else you want to add?
Meghan: From a parent’s standpoint with a kid that’s really going through it, Matt was very encouraging with Jaiden. Jaiden was very mentally drawn back at first because he could not walk for two months, and he was missing out on his sports – he felt like recovery was going to be forever.
Matt helped me stay grounded and remember that it was not going to last forever, and we were going to get through this with him. You’re going to need to stay positive, keep doing the hard work, and it will pay off. It was hard to just keep going and trust the plan and it was nice to have [Dr. Musket] reassuring us of the plan. We’re getting towards, not quite the end, but the next step of this all, and we’re happy. We’re excited and in a very different mindset now.
An update from Dr. Musket as of June 10th, 2024:
Dr. Musket: Jaiden is fully weight bearing on his leg and is able to take steps without crutches! Check out the video clips below to see Jaiden’s progress throughout the past few months. His orthopedic specialist, Dr. Nichols, commented to Jaiden’s mom, “this rehab and recovery could not have gone better!”
Physical Therapy Services at CHDC:
Manual Therapy to decrease pain, facilitate movement, and to maximize recovery.
Modalities such as electrical stimulation, to accelerate healing, to decrease pain without medicines where possible, and to retrain movement patterns. For example, super pulsed and static cold lasers to treat a plethora of diagnoses and wounds, HIVAMAT for soft tissue, edema, and a variety of musculoskeletal pathologies, electrical stimulation, ultrasound, and diathermy. All modalities and treatment protocols are in line with evidence-based practice and/or current research findings.
Education on your medical condition and proper ways to manage your recovery from surgery, injury, or condition during the rehabilitation process.
Thank you to Meghan & Jaiden, for sharing your CHDC Patient Story. If you have a patient story that you would like to share, please speak to your provider or call 610-326-9460 and ask for our Marketing Department.
If you would like to schedule an appointment at CHDC, please call 610-326-9460 to speak with a Patient Services Representative.