Preemies
***pmkmp***
I saw your post about your daughters hip surgery. I hope you don't mind asking you some questions. My daughter also has hip dyslplasia. She also has club feet. Those have been corrected and now we are waiting for the hip bone to mature so the surgeon can do her hip surgery. The harness was not an option for us as hers is pretty bad, which I think you mentioned your daughters was. How do you guys position her to sit? Like do I need to get a certain type of chair for her or car seat? How can I prepare myself for this or can't I? I have never really thought about the hip suregery because I was dealing with her club feet and then when we met with the surgeon I started asking questions about it and I did not realize what kind of cast she would be in afterwards. I know the 3 months she is in it is nothing compared to having her hip in the socket, but for now I can't get past that idea and I tear up when I think about her in the cast. When she had clubbed feet she was in cast on both of her legs from her waist down and she was only a month old when we began the process so she wasn't mobile, but after the hip surgery she will already be crawling by then. We go back in December to see if her hip bone is mature and then we will go from there with the surgery. My daughter is almost 6 months now and he is looking at doing the surgery when she is a year. Please offer me any advice on anything you have and I am sure I am going to be paging you a lot. I hope you don't mind. By the way my name is Lindsay. Thanks sooo much!
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Re: ***pmkmp***
Hi Lindsay! I have no problem holding your hand through this process, but you have to hold mine too! Ha, ha!
Ok, first of all, the cast looks horrible and I fully admit it's scary. However, once you're forced to deal with it, you do what you have to do and it's not all that bad. When we were preparing for Aubrey's surgery we ran into other parents who had a child in a spica cast and they said the same thing we had heard over and over... after the first few days to a week, your child won't even care about it anymore, and as for the parents, it will just be part of your routine.
We got Aubrey a beanbag. That's been the single best and easiest thing for us to use. Our OT from EI loaned us an adjustable table that fits in front of her beanbag so she can play and eat snacks. The hospital provided us with a special car seat (Britax Hippo). Aubrey still fits in her stroller as long as we have towels rolled behind her. She does not fit in her highchair, but we managed to strap her old car seat to a dining room chair and added some rolled up towels to make it work for her. All that modifying would make it unsafe to use in the car, but it's perfectly fine for the kitchen! You do have to worry about pressure points... heels and tailbone... so you'll have to re-position her every few hours. Although, if she's on her tummy, you shouldn't have to worry about pressure points. For that reason, we put Aubrey on her tummy for sleeping so that we don't have to get up during the night to move her. She's taken it to it really well! We had to put a couple pillows in her crib to form a T shape for her to lay on.
As far as being mobile... Aubrey still wasn't crawling, but definitely rolling every where and getting quite active. We see her get frustrated when she can't get to a toy. We've heard plenty of stories of children learning to crawl by dragging their casted legs around. Others learn to scoot in an upright position.
Diapering kind of sucks. You have to change the pad every hour or two so that it doesn't leak to the cast. The cast can and will get smelly no matter what you do. I won't go into details about that - the nurses will help you through that. Just be prepared to buy several different sizes of diapers and maxi pads! The cashier at Target gave me a funny look when I plopped all those things down!
Has the doctor explained what kind of surgery he's going to perform? Closed reduction vs. open reduction? Aubery had closed reduction. She recovered pretty quickly. I'd say by day 3 or so she was perking up quite a bit.
I promise, once it all happens, you'll realize it's a good thing and you'll get used to it quick. My feathers were definitely ruffled the first week, but like I said earlier, it just became part of my routine.
What else can I tell you? Have I helped? Maybe I should get you some pictures when I have time.
From what you've said, I'm going to venture to guess that Ashlyn will be having a closed reduction surgery, which is the less invasive surgery, so that's good! And it's only one hip - awesome! I'm wondering if they'll even cast Ashlyn like they did Aubrey. I remember seeing a girl in the waiting room with only one leg casted and it looked exactly like Aubrey's spica cast, but only 1/2!
Carrying her around isn't really any different. She's just heavier. I think the cast is 6-10lbs. I can rest her on my hip just like I used to carry her. Just can't pick her up under her armpits anymore - have to put one hand under her crotch and one hand behind her shoulders. Don't freak - it's not bad!
The diapering hole is big enough to get the job done. We line the edge of hole to protect the cast, then insert a big maxi pad, then insert a size 1 diaper over that. To go over the entire cast like a regular diaper, we use a size 4 diaper. That's purely for looks.
No, they weren't going to make us wait for her hip bone to mature. Our timeline went sort of like this... dysplasia was discovered when she was 7 months actual age (4 months adjusted). Surgery was set for just a few months later - 10 months of age. We had to postpone it for other reasons, so that's why we ended up waiting until she was 13 months old actual age (10 months adjusted). As much as I hated the anticipation, I'm glad we ended up waiting on the surgery. Aubrey changed so much in those few months that I think it's going to help to make her recovery that much easier.
Trust me, the anticipation of this surgery is the hardest part! We just had Aubrey out at the Pumpkin Patch last night and she was happy as can be and we weren't even bothered by her cast. We got fabulous pictures - the cast is just part of our life! Sure I was a little jealous of the kids her age running through the pumpkins, but we'll get there... patience!