This is the story of my daughter and our experience in dealing with her knock knees.  Until 16 months ago, we didn't even know we had a problem.  I am writing this hoping I can help another family prepare for the journey we are currently going thru.


November 15, 2011 started off as a normal day.  Melissa my then 13 year old had just gone to her room to get dressed when suddenly a blood curdling scream came from her room.  I ran to her room and her right knee cap had slide out of its groove and was below her knee, creating an ugly bulge.  It popped back into place but the pain continued.  She hopped to the car and we headed off to the hospital.  The physicians on duty did not know what to make of it...they braced her leg and gave us a referral to a an orthopedist.

A week later we saw Dr. John Churchill of Peds Ortho at the Naples office. They took a history and xrays and the diagosis was fast. Genu valgum.   Melissa was knock knee'd.  Actually there was a pretty simple test.  When standing with her knees together, her ankles could not touch.  Looking back at her elementary school photo's we could see it in every class photo.    Nobody had ever noticed before.  It was immediately suggested that Guided Growth Plates be put into legs, basically locking down one side of the growth plate but still allowing the other side of the femur to grow and straighten her leg. http://eight-plate.com/treatment_overview.php  Ten days later at Health Park in Fort Myers Melissa had these plates surgically inserted in her knees.  Outpatient procedure, we were on our way home in about 3 hours. She was in pain and we were sent home with vicodin. Over the weekend, she took 3 pills, otherwise she coped with the pain with 600mg of advil.  She returned to school on the Monday in a wheelchair. School let out for the christmas break during which she transitioned to crutches.  She walked with the crutches....they gave her support and made her walking more comfortable.  She used them for 3 weeks and finally gave them up.

Unfortunately, this procedure did not achieve the desired results.  Her age was working against us....she initially grew 3/4 of inch in height within the first 6 months...then nothing.  She had hit her full height of 5'6"...time had run out.   Meanwhile her left knee cap was beoming unstable.  Pain increased in both knees and her physical activity came to a halt.  She had never been althetic but loved to walk around our complex with her dog.  She loved to swim for hours.  She would come home some days in tears complaining about how much her knees hurt.  Even shopping trips to the mall became shorter and shorter as her knees became more and more unstable.  In January of 2013 we returned to Dr Churchill.  The only solution was major surgery....a bilateral distal femoral osteotomy on both legs at the same time