We recently found out that we are going to be adding a little girl to our family. This will be the third little girl. I feel slightly sorry for their dad being the only guy, but my dad survived three girls so I figure he can too. At least I think he will be able too. Anyways, this has brought about some concerns on my part.
Little girls are more likely to have DDH according to statistics. It is also common if you have had one child with DDH the next one following is likely to have the same condition. I have not really found out why this happens, maybe someone who has experienced this may have more answers. I am trying to prepare myself for what might come in about four and half months. I am not trying to be pessimistic. I am simply telling myself that I can do this again, if I have to.
I asked the ultrasound technician if there was any way they can tell in advance if a baby has DDH. He said as far as he knows there is no early test. It can be difficult enough to diagnose after they are born through ultrasound. So we will have to wait and see what our little bundle brings us.
I thought that life would be different for Natalie. I thought she would probably not be as active as other children her age. I was even prepared for her to be happy watching other children run by and she would be content to watch. I had a lot of thoughts about what having surgery and hip dysplasia would do to a small baby who was even tempered and quiet. Boy, I had another thing coming. I only have one word that truly describes our two year old and that is crazy.
She is not only active; she is more active than other kids her age. The girl is every where at one time. I thought well she might not ever run very fast, but that’s okay she will be able to walk with out hurting. The girl can run, and she can run faster than most kids her age. She has endurance, determination, and a temper to push her through what ever obstacle is in her way, which most of the time is her big sister who is six years older.
She is constantly on the move. She always has some where to go. She always has a plan, if not she will just wing it and destroy what ever is closest to her at the time.
Most people look at me funny when I say she is crazy, but the people that spend time with her all laugh. All of our family and church friends laugh because they know her so well. They know that she can be gone in the blink of an eye. This is not a child that you can let walk next to you while you are out and about because the first time she sees an opportunity she is gone. We have talked about getting her one of those backpacks that look like an animal, but they are really a leash so your kids do not get lost. We need one of those if not two that way we both have a hold on her.
Do not get me wrong, I would not change a thing about her. She has her very sweet moments as well, such as early in the morning. You know when she is jumping on the bed to wake us up on Saturdays. Why do we need to sleep past seven after she kept us up until one o’clock in the morning? She is a night owl like her dad and a morning person like my mom. The two really do not mix well for me since I am neither.
The surgery definitely changed my quiet little baby into a crazy little two year old, but to see her run, walk, play, and be happy was worth every moment in that hospital, spica cast, and brace. I am very thankful for her even though there are times I wonder what were we thinking have more than one kid. Especially, since we will be adding a third one in May. I can only say that she has worn off on us and we are a little crazy too.
Last Saturday was our oldest daughters birthday party, she turned nine. Wow she is growing up so quickly. For her birthday party we were able to rent out the Oklahoma Baptist University swimming pool and they furnished a room, etc. My wife went to one of our cousins birthday parties there and said it was extremely nice. I had no idea it was as nice as it ended up being.
Natalie had been swimming before, but this kind of stood out in my mind as I was thinking about some of the active things Natalie has done in the last few weeks. She is actually an extremely active child now days. I am constantly having to tell her to slow down as she runs through church, or make sure to hold onto her tighly in parking lots and stores because she will try to run away. However, while swimming she seemed to really enjoy it. For a couple of hours we had lifejacket on her and she was kicking around the pool, with a little help mind you, but still doing a lot of the work. I was really impressed with her stamina. You would think that with her hip displaysia it would become sore or would be quicker to tire out. She held up with everyone just fine and this is a promising sign that she will be able to play sports if she decides she wants to.
We have had a few comments and we don’t want the readers to get annoyed with the same old content up. Therefore, I wanted to just acknowledge at what part of the process we are still at.
Our daughter recently went back to the doctor for another check up. Her hips are slowly moving to the proper angle that the doctors want them to be at. Note that I said hips as in plural. Yes, I suppose it is common in kids who have this condition to favor one side. I’m not sure if this is the reason, but its the only thing that comes to mind. We have heard from the doctor that even though one hip was the one not in place at birth, the other is often altered a little bit too as they learn to sit up and do ordinary things. Therefore, both are being adjusted back to normal through the use of her brace that she received after getting her spica cast off.
She has recently been sick and it was a little bit of a concern of ours that in her small bed she would be unable to roll over if she vomited in the middle of the night. Therefore, we left it off of her until she got to feeling better. Once you break the routine of putting it on her, she tends to realize she feels more comfortable with it off. The odd thing is that she sleeps exactly how she would sleep with it on. Her legs are spread and nearly at a 90 degree angle from her torso much like the brace keeps them when she is in it.
Lately we have just been getting back in the routine of her wearing it. She doesn’t often sleep all night in it. However, the doctor told us that the more she is in it, even if it is for an hour or two is better than nothing. My advice would be to not break the routine if you can keep from it.
Natalie just went back for her latest checkup. We received rather good news. According to the doctor everyone hips have a specific angle that they need to be at. They would prefer that Natalie’s hips are less than twenty degrees. Currently, the one that required surgery is at 26, which is about six degrees less than what it was at a year ago. The other is at 23. This one is two degrees less than it was. So things are improving!
The doctor says that she will need to wear her brace at night still for at least another six months. This is fine though as long as her hip problem continues to improve.
One other thing that I found interesting that the doctor said is that when she had her surgery she had no ball for her hip. This is usually built as pressure is put on it and it naturally forms. Since her leg was never in the socket, it didn’t form. After the surgery and everything was in place, this was supposed to put it in a good position to form properly. It did and everything was fine. However, the doctor noted that on some children that part of the bone can actually die. I’m not sure exactly what is required to correct that, but it sounds like another surgery would be required.
If your child has experienced this, please let us know so we can provide others with more information about it.