On the 24th July 2015, I gave birth to our daughter, she was absolutely perfect in every way, BUT when we were discharged from the hospital, we weren’t given a sufficient Hip Check, at her six week check up, we were told there was absolutely nothing wrong with her hips and that she would grow to be able to walk, crawl and stand with ease. ( At this point we had never even heard of hip dysplasia).
Fast forward to 6months old, We noticed when she was crawling, her left leg was dragging, and when she was using her jumperoo, she’d always slouch to the side, we thought that maybe she just liked to weight bear on the right side, but it continued, i booked an appointment with our local gp who in turn was concerned and sent us to the hospital for an xray of the hip/pelvis.
It was confirmed that our little girl had Developmental Dysplasia of the Left hip,the right was absolutely fine, and because her hip socket was so shallow, her left femur was growing out of place ( in fact she didnt even have a fully formed hip socket or ball!) and was a lot longer than the right.
Just before her 1st birthday, we were sent to Derriford hospital, where they tried to performed what they call a closed reduction of the hip socket, they put dye into the hip and found that there was a LOT of cartialage that was in the way, so we were sent home with another date for a more complex operation
.
In September 2016, Our girl underwent a 6 hour operation to cut her femur to size, they removed most of the cartialage, and created a whole new hip really! after this, she was put into a spica cast, a type of cast that allows the hip to heal at the correct angle ( She seemed to have frog legs!) this was for a timeframe of 8 weeks, we were told she would not be able to crawl, or climb, but that didnt stop her at all!
Our surgeon was incredibly suprised! It was really hard for us when she was casted, we couldnt get her in the car, we had to make her pram suitable for her and we needed a lot of equipment to help her out, Luckily, she never ever made a fuss!
When it came to our next appointment, they took her cast off!!!
i dont think ive ever cried at a pair of legs in my whole life, i dont know weather it was that i had the whole of my baby back or the fact id noticed her two HUGE scars ( they have faded luckily).
She was wobbly for weeks, it was like having a newborn all over again!
Despite all of this, 2 months later, she stood up and walked! which amazed us even more!
Unfortunatley, 6 months after casting we went back for an xray, and there is still one last operation to go, we are prepared for this, and know that there is a light at the end of the tunnel!
I could not thank her surgeon enough, he’s kept us in the loop,he’s given support and most of all,he’s helped our baby!!
I just wanted to share this, as i think hip dysplasia is still really unheard of, and i really really hope that mummies and daddies going through this now, will read this and realise, our babies are incredible, brave and damn right awesome! There is a light at the end of the tunnel!
