yeah!

Awesome news for Oliver! Good hip looks OK - just stiff, but his range of motion was SO much better in the right that she said he can actually walk for now unless he's limping. No running, jumping or hopping, but he can walk as long as he isn't limping. It's hard not to worry it'll flare up again, but we trust our doc - we can always dial back what he's doing if it doesn't go OK. He'll use the wheelchair only for long walks - like to the mall or something. The doc said the PT we're doing at home is clearly helping, and that his exam looked really good. She also seemed hopeful that it wouldn't get that bad, and mentioned again that there's still a possibility he has a congenital variance rather than true Perthes. She'd earlier also said not to get our hopes up about that, though it's hard not to. But it's amazing how suddenly doable "not running, hopping, or jumping" feels compared to thinking that Oliver might be in that chair full-time for a long time. The ER doc had said, "it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck but we need a little more time to prove it's a duck", so I was fully prepared to hear that he might or does have Perthes in the 2nd hip. What happened instead was such a happy shock. We'll take it as long as it lasts - what a wonderful Christmas present.Time to focus on something other than this disease for a while.