Name :   Sherry Stutts

E-mail :  sherry.stutts@ehtexas.com

Adult:    66 years old

Location:  Livingston, Texas

Area(s) affected:  Left ankle and leg

Personal History:

My name is Sherry Stutts and I am 66 years old.  On December 8, 2012, I had just finished mopping my kitchen.  I was walking along the edge of the floor in house shoes when I slipped.  I fell on my back and my left leg went under the dining table and my foot hit the huge pedestal in the middle of the table.  Immediately my left foot and ankle began to swell.  My husband wanted to take me to the emergency room.  Being the nurse that I am, I opted to “wait until morning”.  I elevated my foot but was miserable all night.  The next morning we went to Memorial Hospital ER in Livingston, Texas.  When my x-ray came back on my left ankle I was told I had a severe sprain.  They applied a brace, gave me hydrocodone for pain (which I did not take), told me to keep it elevated for the next couple of days and it should be fine.  Well, it did not get any better. I  called and made an appointment with an orthopedist.  Dr. Shaw had an x-ray made of my left ankle area.  I then went back to the exam room I had been sitting in.  In a few minutes the x-ray tech came in and said Dr. Shaw wanted an x-ray of my leg up to my knee.  I thought nothing about it. As I was sitting in the exam room waiting for Dr. Shaw, I heard him talking to an associate in the hallway.  He was telling him that he had never had a case of this (which I learned was melorheostosis) in his years of practice.  He also said it was very rare and he had to look it up on his computer.  The next thing I heard was his knock on my door.  He sat down and began telling me about what he had seen on my x-ray.  He showed me what he had researched on his computer and ran a copy off for me.  He said that some forms could be malignant so he sent me for an MRI which came up negative.   He sent me to physical therapy for 6 weeks.  The therapist had never hear of melorheostosis either.  I was an enigma!  The therapy did help to strengthen my ankle some.  I take Ibuprofen for the pain.  I do not know if the melorheostosis is in any other of my long bones.  I have arthritis and have decided to go to a rheumatologist in the next month or so to see what kind of arthritis I have.  My left ankle becomes tender at times and is misshapen.  I have always had leg pain.  When I was little it was “growing pains”.  As a young mother it was “on my feet too much”.  In my older years “arthritis”.  After what I have read about others who found it at a very early age, I feel blessed to have gotten to 63 before I was diagnosed with it.  I live in a rural area and do not know anyone with this disease.  Thanks for letting me share my story.    Sherry Stutts, 4033 FM 3152, Livingston, TX 77351.