Hip Dysplasia

We went to Emilee's 9 month check up and the pediatrician was feeling her legs and hips and noticed a hip click when he moved it around. This means her hip was clicking in and out of the socket, he called for an X-ray and the picture above is what it showed.  Her left hip (right side in the picture) shows that the socket is at a steep angle and essentially not cupping around the ball joint of the hip. After the pediatrician got a look at the X-ray, he immediately called me and scheduled an appointment for us at Primary Children's Hospital the following week on Dec. 23rd. We had to change around all our Christmas plans to accommodate the appointment, but at least we were able to go to the McMillan Christmas party, which we otherwise would have not been in Salt lake and would have missed. The pediatric orthopedic specialist at Primary's told us that Emilee has hip dysplasia. Hip Dysplasia means that the bones of the hip joint are not aligned correctly. Since Emilee is an "older" baby it is too late for just a brace at this point and will require open reduction surgery on her hip socket to reposition the ball back into the socket. After the surgery she will have to be in a spica cast that will hold the bones in the correct position for 3 months. Yes, I said 3 months! The cast will be like the picture below; with the one leg is a cast from belly to ankle and the other leg is used to stabilize the cast and stops above the knee. Her surgery is scheduled for Feb. 21st. Hip dysplasia is actually pretty common (especially in first born's and girls) and causes no pain for the baby, so it is hard to detect besides the hip click or asymmetry of the legs, but if left untreated can cause crippling arthritis at an early age. 

Kid with Spica cast.

At first I was devastated to know there was something wrong with my baby and tears were shed and writing this and thinking about my poor girl still makes me a little teary. But I'm glad for modern medicine that can fix things like this and having it fixed before she walks and gets older where it is even more serious and harder to fix. Babies are so resilient (so they say, I guess I will find out first hand) and can heal and recover much faster then adults so that is also a positive. 50% of babies will need no other treatment and will have a normal hip. The other 50% may need another hip surgery later in life (with small percents having complications, as with any thing). When you think about all the parts a human needs to be alive and function, there are alot of things! Daniel has reminded me that Emilee could be much, much worse off. She has no heart problems or tumors like other children we know. So even thought it will be heart breaking to have her in a cast on her first birthday, and the challenge of diaper changes, sponge baths, special car seats, and probably super frustrating for her not to be able to crawl around where ever she wants to, I think in the end we will manage and be alright. I hope she is still as happy as she is now, but you do what you gotta do.

check out hip dysplasia.org for more info. This is where I read alot of stuff about it.
http://www.hipdysplasia.org/default.aspx