Lauren is still doing very well! She has no limp at all now and her legs seem to be the same lenght! She will still need check ups until she has finished growing. The next check up is in Oct 2007. Anyone reading this whos child has perthes, I hope you are encoraged by lauren's progress. She is just like any other 10 year old now, running, jumping and getting into mischief! She has no pain either which is so good! Looking back now, the choice to operate instead of haveing casts for 2 years certainly seems to have been the correct one although it was a very hard decision at the time, we feel she missed less of her childhood than if she had been in casts for 2 years! Lauren was fully informed of the choices and knew that surgery had no guarantee of working and wanted to go ahead. She was only 7 at the time but i still feel that telling her all the facts and letting her be part of the decision was the best thing to do.