On January 13,2010, Lilie got to have her cast off. She was in her cast for a total of 10 weeks. She made enough progress during the 10 weeks that her doctor felt that she did not have to stay in it for a full 12 like her sister. She was put into a hip abduction brace that she wears for 22 hours a day.
She did very well that day. She was a little stiff and sore though she was still a very happy baby. Lilie was scared to death during the removal of the cast though. I would just recommend being prepared for your child to scream during the cast removal. She did not scream because it hurt, but she was scared. The saw is very loud, and Lilie has never liked loud noises. If your child does not like loud noises, just be prepared for some screaming. She was just fine as soon as the saw was turned off.
The saw that they use to remove the cast does not have an actual blade on it like you see on a table saw. The cast saw only vibrates the cast apart. It will not cut skin, so you don’t have to worry about this hurting your child. The technician is very well trained. Cast removal is what most of them do all day long.
One thing to remember when your child is taken out of the cast, you will want to help support their legs still. Their legs will not have much muscle tone. Lilie’s legs are still very floppy compared to other children her age though she is catching up quickly. She is doing very well, but we did have to support her legs and upper body when carrying her around. One thing that I was told during our first experience was whatever age or skill level they are when they go into the cast, it will be the same when they come out. If they can not sit up before the cast, then they will not be able to sit up afterwords. This statement has been very true. Lilie and Natalie were both stuck at the age they were when they went into the cast. They did progress very quickly though.
Well, we finally got Lilie in for her cast change and actually received better news than we had expected. Originally, we thought we would be waiting until about February to get her cast totally off and changed to a brace. However, the doctor scheduled January 13th as the big day for getting her last cast off.
Anyhow, we have her in her second cast now. We took her in yesterday to get that done. They put some gas on her to make her go to sleep and gave her some other anesthesia (they didn’t do that with Natalie). As you can see in the picture, she wasn’t upset, she was just a little bit dazed still from being under the medication.
The new cast, which you can’t see much of in this picture, goes up higher than the other one. In fact, this one goes up almost to her underarms when she sits up. Also, her left leg (the one that did not have surgery) is out of the cast. The cast only goes down to the bottom of her thigh on that leg. She seemed really happy yesterday evening, but she has a worn spot behind her left leg for whatever reason. We’re hoping it doesn’t cause problems!
Overall though, it would seem that the spica cast changes are extremely easy on the babies. They may not like leaving your arms or may have a little bit of fear of going under any form of anesthesia, but it is actually a simple process. She was in and out within a few hours. Most of that time was just spent recovering from the medication.
Lilie’s hip is looking really good according to the doctor. We are looking forward to the day that she can get out of the spica cast!
Last time we had to go through with surgery on Natalie we had a pretty hard time. Natalie was constantly waking up and would cry every 5 minutes (no exaggeration). They would give her pain medication and would tell us that it could just be an affect of the anesthesia. We didn’t really think much about it until we told the recovery room nurse about that problem. We noticed Lilie wasn’t doing this. The nurse told us that often kids in spica casts will have muscle spasms. No matter how much pain medication you are giving, that doesn’t fix that problem.
You know what, as we looked back that is probably exactly what was going on. The nurses at the time just didn’t know what the problem was and didn’t know how to correct it. So, a quick warning when you go in for surgery and to have a spica cast placed on your child, if your child is waking up and acts like they are in pain every few minutes then this is a good possibility. You can make it known to your nurse and hopefully get some assistance with the problem. More to come about Lilie’s surgery soon!
Well, right after we had some relatively good news it was torn down this week with news that Lilie’s hip still isn’t looking quite right. My wife saw the x-rays and said that even she could see a difference in her right and her left. The doctor may think that she just has a ligament in the way preventing her hip from going into the right location. Either way, she is going to need surgery. He didn’t want to wait so he scheduled it for today and it looks like she also will be in a spica cast. We were trying to avoid this, but it looks like it just couldn’t be corrected with the pavlik harness she had been wearing for the last couple of months.
The doctor won’t know whether he will have to do the open medial reduction like he had to do on Natalie (our older daughter) until he gets in there and gets a good look at what is going on. So, unfortunately, we won’t know until she is out of surgery what type of condition her hip is in and how long she will need to be in the cast. It would be awesome if she could be totally out of it by Christmas, but that is wishful thinking I would imagine! We will try to keep you guys up to date.
Unfortunately Lilie is still in a brace like Natalie was when she got her spica cast off. However, the good news is that we think her hip is in place. The primary purpose of the brace is simply to give the muscles around the hip time to heal up and strengthen so that her hip will be in the socket permanently. The biggest problem we are having right now is the fact that she does not sleep well in it. We have tried to leave her in it anyway, but it is difficult at times.
Overall, we are hoping to get some good news in the next couple of weeks when we go back to the doctor. Her doctor told us that it will be a “make it or break it” type appointment. She will either be out of the brace or need surgery because he does not want to wait until she is too old to have surgery if she is going to need it regardless.
It has been a good thing that we have found her hip dysplasia this early. We always knew that one of the main reasons Natalie needed surgery was because the condition was not found early enough. Luckily with Lilie we were aware of the condition and found it in time so that they could use a harness and brace to correct the problem.
We will be putting up some pictures of her harness and brace here pretty soon. Thank you for all the emails you guys have sent in support!
We had an excellent Easter this year. I ended up being exhausted, but Natalie and Danielle both did quite well. The girls got to hunt Easter eggs three times! Not only that, but it seemed that there were plenty of eggs each time. It started out Saturday where we went to their grandparent’s house. They had a lot of candy, little toys, and knickknacks that they primarily hunted, but there were also lots of eggs. In fact, there was enough to fill up two Easter baskets a piece.
Sunday, despite the terrible weather, they had an Easter egg hunt at our church after service. It was held indoors but it was still a lot of fun. The kids seemed to really enjoy it even though it was fairly crowded.
Then, lastly, they had another Easter egg hunt at their other grandma’s house. Unfortunately, I was worn out by this point and fell asleep but I heard it was a great time as well.
Through all of this Natalie’s hip seemed to hold up well as she bent down continuously to pick things up off the ground. Both of our girls looked very pretty in their Easter dresses.
Natalie is very active, as stated in almost every other post we have made. Since the weather is starting to get warmer, Danielle and Natalie were able to get outside this last weekend and play around the yard. We bought a trampoline last year. Natalie had a lot of fun Friday evening just playing around on it with her big sister. She probably spent a good 30 minutes out there. That amount of time jumping around just makes me think of a heart attack if I were to even attempt to do it for that long. Again, there was no complaining about her hip and she seems to be doing very well. We are looking at possibly putting her in soccer this next season.
Last week we had a great time at Disney World. We were able to take our two daughters, Natalie and Danielle down there with their grandparents as well. It was a lot of fun and probably really put a strain on Natalie’s hip. It was a good test for how she would do playing sports.
Anyone who has been there realizes that there is a ton of walking involved. Natalie, being as active as she is, has little desire to be pushed around in a stroller. We got her a small monkey backpack that acted as a leash as well to make sure she didn’t get too far away from us. She walked quite a bit, but was not feeling well. She ended up having an ear infection.
When it came to walking, she did quite well. She never complained or acted as though her hip was hurting. Even while being sick, she still seemed to have much more energy than most of us. We were able to go to all four Disney World parks in Orlando, FL. At all of them, she enjoyed running around and seeing all of the different Disney characters. Overall, I think this showed that she is ready to take on soccer and basketball soon.
Natalie had her appointment yesterday morning. The poor little thing had to have two other tests run on her before we went to see her orthopedic doctor. She was a little traumatized by the time that we had to go this appointment, but we got really good new while we were there.
Natalie no longer has to wear her brace at night. The doctor told us that she is just like every other kid. She can play whatever games she wants. We no longer have to super cautious of what her activities are. The doctor does not want to see her until next year for a follow up. I am sure that we will have to continue follow up appointments for the next couple of years.
The doctor also said that she does not look like she will require surgery when she is four, but it is still not completely out of the question. I will take whatever good news we can get for now. Thanks to everyone who was thinking about her yesterday.
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.
