DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My daughter, age 10, walks with a slight limp. She never said anything about pain, so I have let this ride. My sister visited us, and she thinks my daughter’s right shoulder is higher than her left and believes the reason is unequal leg lengths. Could it be? — S.S.

ANSWER: It could. Get out a tape measure and check. Make a mark at hip level on both sides. Measure from that mark to the ankle, where the bone juts out at the side. This measurement will give you an approximation of leg lengths. A more exact measurement is the distance from the anterior superior iliac crest to the medial malleolus at the ankle. That’s something best left to a trained person.

Your sister’s observation that your daughter’s right shoulder is higher than her left makes me think of scoliosis. It’s a curve of the spine either to the left or to the right, and it occurs in the chest area, or the lower back or both. Have your daughter bend over with her arms dangling next to her legs. Seeing a hump in her back is another sign of scoliosis.

With a limp and a higher shoulder, you daughter needs a doctor’s exam. The doctor will decide if X-rays are the next step. They provide the best information for determining leg length and scoliosis.

Should scoliosis be the diagnosis, her age is the ideal age for treatment. Treatment depends on the degree of bend in the spine. A relatively small deviation from normal can be followed. Larger deviations require bracing and sometimes surgical correction.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: Tea is my favorite drink. I have two or three cups a day. A friend tells me that tea promotes kidney stones, and she says she got this information from a nurse.

I have never had stones, and no one in my family has had them. I am 66. Is this something I ought to pay attention to? — D.D.

ANSWER: The most common kind of kidney stone is a calcium oxalate stone. People who have had a calcium oxalate stone are often told to reduce their intake of oxalate foods and drinks. Rhubarb, spinach, parsley, chard, chocolate, walnuts, peanuts, cashews and almonds are high-oxalate foods. Such foods don’t have to be eliminated from the diets of people who have had a calcium oxalate kidney stone, but they should be taken in moderate amounts.

Tea contains oxalates. There is no indication, however, that eliminating tea decreases the risk of developing another stone in a stone-former or in a person who never had a kidney stone.

You don’t need to restrict your tea drinking. You don’t need to moderate the amount of other oxalate foods, either. You’ve never had a stone.

DEAR DR. DONOHUE: My husband had bypass surgery for three blocked heart arteries. He came through the operation fine. I have noticed he has some memory problems that he didn’t used to have. I asked the surgeon who did the operation if this was due to the surgery. He just shrugged his shoulders. Am I imagining this? — C.N.

ANSWER: From 3 percent to 79 percent of people who have had open heart surgery and were put on the heart pump have some changes in mental function, including memory. That’s an absurd spread that I’ve quoted. It probably represents how closely these patients were tested for mental changes.

Memory impairment can stem from small clots that have cut off the blood supply in small brain arteries. The clots formed during the surgery.

For most, a full recovery from these changes is seen three to 12 months after the surgery.

Dr. Donohue regrets that he is unable to answer individual letters, but he will incorporate them in his column whenever possible. Readers may write him or request an order form of available health newsletters at P.O. Box 536475, Orlando, FL 32853-6475. Readers may also order health newsletters from www.rbmamall.com.

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