Cast Removal Day - September 1, 2011

(Day beofre Cast rmoval with Daddy)

We were all so looking forward to Abby's cast removal day!  The count down was on from the moment we were told she had to have one. 

During the time Abby was in the Spica cast our son was very curious about it.  And naturally like any curious little boy protective of his baby sister, asked lots of questions about it.  One of the questions was "what is under the cast Mommy?"  I explained to him about it but I thought that it would be a great experience for him to see it come off and see for him self at the time the cast was removed 'what was under it!'  

I u-tube cast removal video's and we talked alot about the noise and how Abby was going to be scared, but everything would be alright in the end.  When asked he was looking forward to cast removal day.   Abby was a little hesitant about the noise it made but we said we wouldn't leave her.

The morning came!  Oh how excited were we! The four of us piled into the car and drove to the Children's Hospital.  We waited patiently for our turn and then it came!

We all walked into the small room and I placed Abby on the stretcher and held her hand as Evan was in Paul arms very close by. 

Then two nurses came in without introducing themselves and picked up the saw and elevated her left leg higher then we had ever done and began cutting.  Abby screaming, Evan looked up at me with his big blue eyes full of fear and I looked at Paul and said hang on to him while I knelt down close to Abby's head to whisper I love you...not that she could hear as her screams and the noise of the saw drowned out any verbal communication.  the Nurses continued on with the right leg and then back to the left leg.  Then they pulled the top off and for the first time in weeks I could see her small atrophied legs still with the cleaning dye from the original OR on them.  My heart sank at the look of her pitiful legs and I looked up at Paul who's eyes said the same thing.  He came around back to my side of the stretcher (as he had moved to allow the nurses to cut her cast)  I looked our son who now was a ghostly shade of white and told Paul to get him out right now as he was going to pass out.  Paul stated that they were fine, just as the nurses lifted Abby up and pulled out the bottom part of the cast and her little chicken legs were limp on the table.  I grabbed then to support them as they didn't just lie down straight and fine.  I looked up at Paul as Evan went a little limp and yelled at Paul to "take him out of the room right away because he is passing out!" 

I then looked at the Nurses and said are you done and they nodded yes, then I looked at Abby in her eyes  and asked if I could pick her up now, and she said very loud and strong "YES" as if why would you even ask!

I wish I could describe to you how in those moments of terror for my small family that when I picked her up for the first time in weeks I was able to hug her without the cast....so close to my body!  Priceless! I held her so tight and tried to not leg her legs dangle and it must have felt soooo weird to her.  Then I ran out of the room to find Paul holding Evan the same way.  When I turned Paul around to see Evans face his eyes were rolled back and I told Paul to lie him down as he had passed out, but then the nurse came out of the room and saw Evan in this state and told Paul to bring him back in the room and to lie him on the stretcher.  Well just as Paul walked back in the room Evan came too and was screaming.  There was no way he was going to lie on that stretcher where he had just witnessed two strangers take a saw to his sisters legs while she screamed...and it was okay.  Till this day when he see even a reddend area on Abby's legs in a kind soft voice he say "oh this is where the Doctors cut you."

Lesson learned.  Cast removal day = not so fun.  The rest of the visit was uneventful!  Thank God!

By the time we were home everyone was in much better spirits.  It took a while for Abby to become use to her legs again.  And slowly she began moving them.  She was fitted with a brace and received it a few weeks post cast removal with the idea to wear it at night and naps. 

We visited our Orthopod every three weeks for x-rays and to see what her hips were doing.  November 17th again we saw the Doctor and at this visit he said that since he hasn't seen much change he is giving her a 70% change of needing the second surgery (Salter).  But he said that he will decide when we see him in the end of January 2012.  Two months away!

Abby has improved so much in the sence of walking on her own again and having celebrated her second birthday.  Since she is able to ambulate independently and only needs minimal assistance with climbing the stairs.  Tomorrow will be her first day at Muppet's (her co-op day care) on her own.  Well with her big brother close by, as I have been taking her and being her legs up until now.

I am curious to see what the new year will bring.  Her gait is still not "normal" so I will not be surprised if the doctor says we are doing the second surgery.  Right now I am at the point of do whatever you need to do to enable her to ambulate normaly!  Is that too much to ask?!  I think not! 

P.s The doctor said that she probalbly would not be able to walk till Christmas or after...but my Little sister just got married on November 26, 2011 and Abby was a flower girl...she made it down the isle all by herself!!

(Abby sleeping in her brace)

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Cast Change Day! - August 10, 2011

The morning of August 10 at 0800 saw us back in the OR.  I thought that the second time being with Abby as she was put to sleep would be easier.  It was not.  The plan was to have her initial cast off.  Then the Doctor would assessed her hips and measured her for her harness and determined how much longer she will be in the second cast for.

 

An hour and a half later the Doctor came to Abby's recovery room bedside and preceded to tell me ...well I am not too sure what he said exactly because that was when I was just reunited with her and all I really cared about was comforting her and assisting her nurses on how to effectively put a diaper on a child in a Spica cast.  So all I remember was him saying that "everything looks good. Well get a CT to confirm this; and I'll be back to chat."

What seamed like in only a few minutes Abby and I were back from radiology and she was vomiting.  This was the time that her Doctor came back and said something.  But again all I remember was him saying "everything looks great so I'll see you in the clinic in 3 weeks."  Then in a hurry he took off back to the OR for his next case.

Then were brought to the same day recovery room area. We stayed one more hour and then discharged home with an appointment card for September 1, 2011. 

The second procedure done and all I know is that "everything looks good."

I want to know " what looks good." I want him to talk to me as if I am not her parent.  So after obtaining her CT and X-Rays from Aug 11,  I find myself attempting to become a Radiologist/Pediatric Orthopod.

I have hundreds of films to review but I will post one from the CT and one form X-ray to show you what her bones/hips look like thirty days post her bilateral open reduction. 

(Feel free to tell me what you think of them!)

As far as Abby is concerned.  She has required no further medication for pain control. Her sleep and diet have not been compromised in any way this time around. By the late afternoon we were at the park playing on the swings with the warm sun on our face and wind in our hair!  Oh, to be free like a child! 

Cast change has been successful!

Life at our house is  "back to normal."  September 1, 2011 will be a new story!!

Where to begin...



Abby @ Eight Days Old



Abigail was a surprise, but a wanted surprise! Our son had just turned one and surprise number two was on it's way!  October 30, 2009 (Devils night during H1N1 where the hospital had just closed it's doors to visitors) Abby was born o'natural!  My husband still wonders why I had to try it drug free, but I wanted to know what it "felt like!" LoL!  The pregnancy and the first few months post were uneventful. 

However after Abby's care went back to our family Doctor (from the midwifes care) I recall visiting him on her three month check up and mentioning to him that with diaper changes I would hear a random "click" of her left hip.  But I would try to make it happen again and it wouldn't do it. Only randomly.  He checked her hips and said he heard and felt nothing and to not worry about it. 

Three more months pass and still randomly I'd hear "clicks" of her hips. sometimes the right and other times the left.  I remember also thinking that when I hold her with one arm on my hip her hip feels "funny."  The night before her six month check up I rocked her back and forth while I breast feed her thinking that it was the last time I could rub her pretty little knees because I knew that she would have to have a Spica cast with all the random clicking I'd hear.
However the next day at the Dr. apt after I expressed my concerns the FD stated that everything was fine.  I left feeling reassured.  The next few visits were the same. Me expressing the same concerns and him the FD reassuring me that everything was fine. 

My son walked well on his own at ten months and Abby didn't walk.  When she would try to stand and fall she would cry and my husband wondered why she would and I would say, " maybe because she is a girl and is more sensitive."  I didn't know why and thought that it was odd as well but I was reassured that everything was fine so why should I second guess. 

Abby didn't start walking on her own till about 13-14months and when she would it was only short distances and the following day she wouldn't even attempt it.  At about 15 months we were playing outside with the neighbour kids and the one older girl kept encouraging Abby to walk.  Normally Abby was a very content child to sit and watch the other children run around and play.  I thought that I was lucky having a second child so relaxed! The day that the neighbour child encouraged Abby to walk more I watched her gait and thought that something was very off and as the day went on her gait became more laboured.  I new that was not right.  To walk more should not change her gait.

I booked a "gait assessment" with the FD to discuss my findings and concerns with him.  At this apt. he stated that she did have a different gait but it was probable because she is severely flat footed.  But there was nothing we could do at the time because she was so young.  I asked for and x-ray and a peds referral for a second opinion but he stated that "radiation in children was something that they try to avoid. And her flat footedness was something that could be monitored for the time being.  Just buy her very supportive shoes."
I found peace with his remarks for a short time, but then took Abby to see our Chiropodist.   She also said that there was something not right.  Sure she was "flatfooted" but her gait was different.  She took videos of her walking, pictures and a foot impression and Abby was too be her test subject.  She made an arch support that  we could put in any of her shoes and as her feet grew to come back and they would reassess.
Again I felt reassure and at peace that something was being done.  However that was short lived and again I found myself second guessing everything.

Her stance was becoming more angled.  This was not right.  I went to the ED to visit a friend and that day another old friend of mine was there who I had not seen in a few years (who happened to be a pediatrician).  I asked her if she would like to come over to my house for a glass of wine one day and oh by the way check out my daughters gait.   She said that she was busy working a bunch of shift just then, but since she new me and if I had concerns, then something was not right and I should bring Abby to ED the next day to see her.  I didn't like the idea of going to the ED about this as I had been told numerous times before that everything was fine.  But in the end I told her I would come with some coffee!  I wanted to be proven wrong.

Abby and I went the next day. Four hours later my friend the pediatrician came to us and informed us what I knew all along that Abby had bilateral hip dysplasia. I was shocked, but at the same time, "I told you so!"

Less then a week later we meet Abby's pediatric orthopedic surgeon who informed us that the day her initial x-rays were taken that he had seen the x-rays and booked her OR time.   Just over a month later on July 11, 2011 I kissed my baby "good night" on the OR table and left her in the hands of the Orthopod.  Six and a half hours later I got too see her again in a cast from her ankles to her nipples after undergoing a bilateral open reduction.  She then had a CT too make sure that all was ok as her right hip was very unstable.  See/we spent five days in the PCCU(Pediatric critical care unit) as initially she had a hard time keeping her Sp02 up. 

Today marks four weeks and two days of being in the body cast.  We have adjusted, and are still adjusting to it.  My older son is doing okay with this but it is not easy.  Our days are mostly spent indoors.  Nap time for Abby sends my son and I outside to enjoy the hot humid weather and some much needed time in the pool.  To sum it up; the first week was Abby adjusting to the cast.  The second week was adjusting to life at home in the cast. The third week was finding the happy medium.  And now the fourth week I am going stir crazy inside when I want to be outdoors.  But we are making it work.  Re-inventing everything to make Abby's life as normal as can be.  My goal is not have her "hate this."

On Aug 10, 2011 Abby is going back into the OR too see how everything is healing.  She will be measured for her harness and then put back into a Spica cast for two - four weeks depending on what the Orthopod determines from his assessment.  So till then I have her on naturopathic remedies for bone growth and healing along with pushing meats and vegetables.  But time will tell. 

I decided to write this blog as I have read so many other peoples blogs and have retrieved a lot of information in our healing process and well as one particular person I meet from the institute for hip dysplasia web site that we have become great friends voicing our concerns, frustrations and joys over the whole situation our daughters are in.  Without her I would not be typing this!  Thank you.

Too our friends, family, co-workers, BFD Family and our loving church family;  For your kindness our hearts give thanks!

Here are some visual aids...

Ten days Post-OP

(in the Spica)

First Hip X-Ray

This is a video if Abby walking out of the ED the day we got the diagnosis. 



Abby a few hours post-op



Abby's older brother caring for her

Helium balloons are a great toy!

**HUGS**

Playing on the train table One week post-op

The ride home from Hospital!