Simon’s double hip osteotomy and the long road to recovery

On March 19, 2024, Simon had one of the biggest surgeries of his life — a double hip osteotomy at BC Children’s Hospital. Both hips were surgically repositioned and reconstructed to give him better alignment and long-term stability. Plates and screws were placed to hold everything in position while his bones healed. We knew this surgery was coming. We knew it was necessary. But knowing that doesn’t make the reality of it any easier.

The surgery was about 4 hours long and they didn’t end up needing to rebuild his pelvis, so that was a nice surprise. Everything went well and an epidural kept his pain somewhat manageable for the first two days.

The week in the hospital that follow was a blur of pain management, monitoring, learning how to move him safely, figuring out what life would look like once we went home, bouncing back and forth for meals and showers at Ronald MacDonald House, and passing the days with facetime calls, naps and little bits of physio to get moving again. When we were finally discharged, the real work began.

Simon spent four weeks at home essentially immobile. He couldn’t sit upright normally. He couldn’t stand. Every transfer required planning. Every bathroom trip was a two-person job. We built our world around a couch, medications, pillows, and a very brave kiddo trying to make sense of why his body suddenly wouldn’t cooperate. He found a new love of birding on our daily walks using the Merlin app to identify as many species as possible. We found a little groove with enjoyed visits from friends, lots of movies and getting outside in the fresh air as much as we could.

It was slow. It was exhausting. It was isolating at times. But it was also filled with small victories — a better day for pain, a first supported sit, getting outside to pass a ball, a bit more tolerance for movement, sleeping mostly through the night. After those four weeks, we packed up again and moved into inpatient rehab at Sunny Hill Health Centre for Children for five weeks.

Rehab was full-time. Daily physio. Occupational therapy. Learning how to sit again. How to stand. How to take steps. How to trust his body. Some days he was motivated. Some days he was frustrated. Some days he was just tired of being the kid who has to work so hard to do things other kids don’t think about. I watched him relearn how to move from the ground up.

Those five weeks were some of the hardest – being away from our family was the hardest part along with watching Simon have to work so so hard. Seeing him in pain, pushing through fear, choosing courage over and over — and you realize how much resilience can live inside a small body. Simon was – as usual – a real hit with the staff team at Sunny Hill, the days were full of lots of laughs amidst all the hard work. We met some other patients and their families – and Simon’s fave part of the day was the evening activity with no parents, just kids and a recreation therapist having all the fun!

We would escape on the weekends to stay with our friends in Vancouver and chased as much normalcy as we could. One weekend we escaped back to Victoria for a quick trip to host our first ever fundraising gala, the Night of Hope! What a total blur – but in the most magical way. The 5 week stay at Sunny Hill was a tough tough way to spend the spring, but the joy of getting released to head home at the end of June was incredible.

Osteotomy recovery isn’t a quick bounce-back story. It’s months of rebuilding. It’s patience. It’s setbacks. It’s progress measured in inches. But today, when I see him standing taller and moving stronger than before surgery, I know why we did it.

And I’d sit beside that hospital bed and that rehab gym all over again if it meant giving him the best possible future.

💪💙