NO Pivoting

Update on Adrianna since she dislocated her knee for a 2nd time. She had a CT Scan done on her knee September 16th and today we finally got in to see the orthopedic surgeon to get a better idea of what the issue is.  So it seems there are two big underlying issues:

1)  She has extremely loose joints
2)  Her bone hasn't grown properly

The bone issue is that the end of the femur is shaped with two balls and for Adrianna one of those balls (for lack of a better word) isn't completely rounded which means the patella (knee cap) doesn't sit perfectly between those two balls which leaves the patella vulnerable to slip out at any given time.  Plus, one of the dislocations or both caused some cartilage (underneath the patella) to chip so she's got some bits floating around but there doesn't seem to be a concern about that.

What happens now?  If she was a couple years older it would mean surgery but she's still growing so we want to avoid surgery as long as possible.  What does this mean?  Absolutely NO pivoting.  How?  Well that's the question yet to solve.  She will always have to do physio exercises to get that area strengthened and to keep it strengthened (that's where the issues of extremely loose joints comes in).  We're still trying to figure out school gym classes as most activities she does in gym means some form of pivoting.  Also, she'll need to teach herself to be very aware of knee placement and turning so that she doesn't pivot and have it dislocate.

Thankfully she loves to bike as that is one of few exercises she can do that she won't have a tendency to pivot and it will strengthen the necessary muscles.