Counting Down the Days

     Tomorrow…. Tomorrow morning we head back to Shriners, first for an X-ray and then to see the doctor once he's reviewed it. I have mixed feelings about tomorrows appointment because, much like her first X-ray, this appointment may be her last. I'm excited that her journey with hip dysplasia may finally be over but I'm also nervous that her X-ray may be abnormal or her doctor may not be happy with how she distributes her weight on the joints, or any one of a thousand things that would make tomorrow just the start of a new journey.
     Today, however, we went outside and enjoyed the clear sky. The kids ran around and played with a ball. Froggie did a lot of falling down but she was so excited to be able to explore outside. Big Brother loves to be able to run around and was sad that we had to head back home when Froggie started to get tired. (By tired I mean she was laying on the ground kicking her feet and would giggle and fall back down whenever she got up.) So tomorrow is another day but today we had lots of fun!

Froggie loved being outside today

playing ball

Love this little girl

They're so stinking cute!

UPDATE: Froggie's Hips

     So, I know you've all been waiting all day to hear how Froggie's appointment went.
     We got moving a little early and dropped Big Brother off at school. He's always a little thrown off when he gets dropped off alone since we go in as a family every day. Hubby stayed in the car with Froggie since she had fallen asleep and we headed to her appointment from there.
     Traffic was not as bad as I thought it would be (read as we didn't get stuck behind as many buses as I thought we would) so we sat in the parking lot and talked while we drank our coffee for a few minutes. It was nice since Hubby and I don't get a lot of time to talk without the kids around. We will be going out in formal attire this weekend, but that's for a later blog.
     We got in and were quickly sent back to radiology. The ladies there were very nice and were exceptionally tolerant of Froggie's melt down. She has become very uncooperative for people she doesn't see very often and even though we have the same staff every time we go to Shriner's she was not happy to see any of them today.
     We got through the X-ray and there was a marker in the wrong spot. It didn't obstruct the view of the joint space, which is what Froggie's doctor wanted to look at, but they needed to check with the doctor before they sent us back to the main waiting room. Once they tracked down Froggie's doctor he said the image was readable and we were sent back to the waiting room.
     Froggie got to eat her oatmeal and watch the bubble wall while we waited. She really seemed to like the bubble wall and she REALLY likes being able to move herself around.
   

Bubble wall!

     We were taken back and Froggie weighed in at 16lbs 2oz and she is getting SO big. We were taken back to an exam room where we played with Froggie to keep her entertained. We hadn't ever been in this room and it had dolphins in the lights!

In the exam room

Dolphin light!

Hubby making Froggie smile

     Before Froggie's doctor came in the nurse and an intern came in to talk with us and check on Froggie. The intern wanted to do a hip exam on Froggie and she once again went into a melt down. Screaming, tears, batting at anything and anyone.... As soon as I picked her up she patted me and smiled.
     Froggie's doctor came in and said that her X-rays looked good and there was a consensus that her hips were stable and still in the proper position. Her treatment is officially considered over and she will have to go back only one more time in 6 months (once she's walking) to have one last X-ray.
     On our way out we took Froggie's picture with the Frog statue in front of the hospital. Overall it was a great day!

Froggie and the Froggy

Counting Down the Days

     One week from now I will be packing up for Thursday morning a little differently. I will be preparing to leave a little earlier in the morning so that I can drop Big Brother off at school before heading away from work to return to Shriners Hospital for the first time since July.
     We will be heading in for an X-ray to determine whether Froggie's hips are still at the proper angle. Hopefully it will be the last trip we have to make for a check up and I'm not really sure what the treatment option would be if things are not still lined up. But we will just play it by ear and hope for the best.
     Here's a picture of my cute sleepy Froggie... just because.

2 Weeks

     Well, in 2 weeks I will be posting another update regarding Froggie's hips... We go in for an X-ray and possibly our last appointment with her doctor. Now that she's a little more mobile I worry that she may have messed up her progress. Though I suppose if she's going to do anything to her hips it's better for her to do it now before she goes in for this set of x-rays.
    Let the countdown begin!

11 Weeks in the harness

     Well today was our appointment. We checked in and headed back to radiology. Froggie laid on the table while the tech held her still and another tech and I stood behind the wall to take the x-ray. Once they made sure there was a clear image we headed back out to the main waiting room. A few minutes later they took us back and weighed Froggie in. She was 13lb 15oz.
     We got settled in the exam room with the fish light and waited. The nurse came in to check on us and see how Froggie was doing with the harness. She left saying that her doctor would be in after reviewing the X-ray. Froggie was being a little grumpy so I nursed her and she fell asleep so I wrapped her up and put her on the exam table to sleep and I continued my wait.

     The doctor came in and after saying hello to me said "well, the X-ray is normal". He then offered to show it to me, so the nurse stayed with Froggie while I headed out to the computer to look at the X-ray. He showed me her image from today next to her image from April. Her sockets look noticeably different; more curved rather than straight lines. He was looking for angles near 30°. Her left hip was right at 30° and her right hip is at 29°!
     We headed back to the exam room where he unwrapped Froggie and adjusted her harness to ensure a proper fit. He noted that even though he increased the harness' length and allotted her more room she still held her hips at the old setting. He said he wanted us to have her wear it for only bed time for the next month and then discontinue wearing it all together! He took her out of the harness and when he handed it back to me he reminded me that it could be washed as needed. He and the nurse laughed a little when I told them we do clean it. Froggie's doctor went on to say that he can tell which kids wear their harness/braces by how stained they are.

     I asked about Froggie's odd habit of turning her foot and after wiggling her around a little he said not to worry about it. He went on to explain that it was essentially her version of sticking her toes in her mouth. 

     He initially said he wanted to see us again when she was a year old and possibly walking then he changed his mind and said he'd like to see her in 3 months. At our next appointment (in October!) Froggie will have another X-ray done and we'll meet with her doctor to make sure that her angles are still "normal".  We then packed up and Froggie got to leave in pants!

     She really enjoyed her first day harness free and spent a lot of time playing on the floor. She really napped for the first time in 3 months without the harness. She liked having free toes so much that she curled them around the slats on the crib. She also started showing off how flexible she is.

Tomorrow's The Day!

     Well tomorrow morning I will be dropping off Big Brother and taking Froggie to her appointment. When we get there we'll go back for an X-ray. This will determine whether or not Froggie needs continued treatment and what (if any) treatment that may mean. I will also be asking about Froggie's new habit of twisting her legs.
     I'm pretty anxious about our appointment; especially since the last time we went in for an X-ray I thought it would be the end of our journey with Hip Dysplasia. It obviously was not and was the start of this blog and a lot of the things I have brewing in the back of my mind.
     I'm holding out hope for tomorrow though and packing pants/shorts for Froggie. I'm hoping she can go to just wearing the harness at night or not needing it at all.

Let the Countdown Begin

     Today is Monday and that means that in just 4 days (counting today) Froggie will be re-evaluated. She goes in Thursday morning to have an x-ray done to see where her hips are at. I'm trying not to go into this appointment expecting it to be our last. Especially since I know it wont be.
     Even if Froggie's hips have improved it's not likely that they will just say ok, you don't have to wear the harness at all anymore. Sometimes kids move to just wearing the harness at night once their hips are in a good position. If she can be harness free after this appointment she will most likely have to return for follow up visits once she begins to crawl and walk to ensure that everything is still in place.
     The other option available to us is continued treatment. I'm not sure what that would look like as there are a variety of options. Froggie would probably not continue to use the harness once she begins to roll over because he doctor does not feel it's as effective as they get strong enough to manipulate themselves around the harness.

     Anyway, here's your daily dose of Froggie. I promised myself that I would never be one of those parents to put crazy ponytails in their kids hair but it's getting pretty long into her face so I bought those tiny hair bands last night...

Teeth AND a ponytail... what happened to my baby?

Clinical Check

     This morning was a clinical check for Froggie. This means we were just going in to make sure she was still tolerating the harness and that it was fitting the right way.

     We got there early and headed in quickly to avoid the rain. After a few minutes in the waiting room we were taken back and Froggie was weighed in at 13lb 2oz. We were then escorted to our typical exam room and waited for Froggie's doctor to review her files and come in. 

     I had mentioned to the nurses that I was concerned about a popping/snapping sound that occasionally came from Froggie's right leg. After she went to add it to Froggie's file Froggie and I returned to making faces at each other and playing with her blankie and frog. I also requested copies of Froggie's X-ray and Ultrasound to keep with all of her records (I walked out with them on CD at the end of our appointment!).

     Froggie's doctor adjusted her harness back to the looser original settings that he had tightened at our las appointment. We were once again reminded to keep up with tummy time and Froggie's doctor took a closer look at her hips to see if anything was causing the noise. He wiggled her legs all around and said that everything felt ok and it may be the ligaments in her knee. He mentioned that the harness isn't able to properly do its' job once Froggie starts to roll over and move more. What I took away from this is that Froggie would then be able to put herself in a position that would keep her hips from laying in the way the harness is supposed to keep them.

Froggie checking out her feet.

     When I explained to the doctor that Froggie is starting to roll from side to side and if her harness is off she can roll from her belly to her back he mentioned that he would like her to wear the harness for another month but at her next check we would do X-rays to check her progress. So July 11th we find out what the fate of the harness is!

Tummy time at school after her appointment.

     This evening Big Brother was showing his little sister the wonderful world of his cars. He even let her hold his brand new Mater!

Eating Mater!

Is it working?

     That's the big question isn't it? I know I've been hearing things like "how long does she have to wear the harness?" a lot lately. The simple answer is I don't know. 

     I can look Froggie over and think she's perfect (she is my daughter and I think she's perfect regardless) but an X-ray may show that she's still in need of a harness or other treatment. And that's really the only way we'll know. We're quickly approaching the halfway mark of her current treatment. It's hard to believe that on Thursday she will have been in the harness for 6 weeks! In another 6 weeks they'll do another set of X-rays to see where Froggie's hips are at. 

     Our doctor had told me about children who are taken out of their harness' and their legs stay in the position the harness holds them in. Well this morning when I was changing Froggie's clothes I thought I'd take a picture. She's pretty wiggly so it's not the greatest picture but that's how her legs lay as long as she's not moving them around. I hope this means it's working!

Thinking of Things to Come

     Froggie's first check up is creeping up on us...
     We were supposed to go back in this week to have the harness checked and adjusted if necessary but Froggie's doctor is scheduled to have a long weekend so we will be going in first thing Monday morning (one week from today).
     I'm more nervous about this check up than about the appointment when she had her X-rays done. This probably has something to do with the fact that I went into that appointment thinking she'd have a clear X-ray and we'd never have to return.
     Lots of people ask me "is it going to work?" and to be honest I don't know. My response is typically "it's supposed to" followed by details about how long she's going to wear it etc. I've read stories from parents who say their child only had to wear the harness for a few weeks instead of a few months and that everything was fine; however, I've also read stories about children who were not helped, needed surgery and required more intense treatment.
     I suppose I was pretty numb to the situation on day one and I have been doing some research since then but the information specific to Froggie all comes from our doctor. Throughout the rest of the week I'll be compiling questions to ask our doctor on Monday. I will share them with you all, as well as the answers, come next Monday.
     Froggie has seems to have adjusted to the harness. She kicks and wiggles when it's off but she doesn't seem to fuss when it's time to put it back on. I wonder if the positioning has become comforting to her, the doctor didn't seem to think that her hip positioning caused her any pain now but who knows.
     The weather was beautiful again today and so the kids and I took the time to go for a walk. My son is very much into doing things for himself so he opted to walk rather than ride in the wagon or stroller while Froggie was strapped into the Ergobaby. It was a nice way to transition from the rushing around of the day to our bed time routine, not to mention it probably made him EXTRA tired.

Walking with the kids. 

Transformation Day

APPOINTMENT #3
     It was an early morning appointment. My husband had taken my son to day care early so that I wouldn't have to find something to do with him during our daughter's X-ray's. Once again she and I went at it alone.
     We pulled in to the parking lot and we were the only car there aside from those in the staff spots. The building was quiet and there were only a few ladies at the desks I walked past to go sign in. Then we waited in the quiet since the staff must have still been trickling in for their shifts. My daughter was weighed and measured and checked out at 11lbs 7oz and about 24 1/8" long.
     Our nurse helped us make the short trip to radiology and I laid my baby girl on the X-ray table expecting the image they were about to take to be the start of the last appointment we would have at Shriners EVER.
     I was wrong... 
     She did wonderfully through the quick X-ray and we got her dressed and headed back to our favorite exam room. The nurse came in shortly after we got settled to inform me that our doctor hadn't yet walked in the door but as soon as he arrived my daughter's X-ray was ready for him to view.

Waiting on the doctor with her Taggie's blankie

     While we waited I entertained my daughter with the few random toys in the diaper bag and played peek-a-boo with her using her precious Taggies blankie. I took her picture, looking back on it now I must have known somewhere deep down that I wanted to document this process since I had taken her picture at every appointment. I was getting bored. I decided if we were going to be waiting I would have her do some tummy time. She stunned me by rolling herself over! (I swear she really did! She even did it 2 more times that night for my husband while I was teaching him how to use her harness.)
     He finally had come in with the nurse. Most of what he said before I saw her X-ray was a blur but it amounted to she needed a brace.
     I was taken down the hall to look at Froggie's X-ray on the computer. It looked like a normal pelvic X-ray to me, though the extent of my medical training is a 10 year old EMT certification and more recent first aid certifications - nothing that would qualify me to say that my daughter's X-ray was fine. In his thick accent our doctor elaborated that my daughter's hips were at 34 degree (right) and 43 degree  (left) angles when they were supposed to be at 30 degrees or less. He showed me where the shadow of her hip sockets was not deep enough which made the angle too high. He opened up a computer program to check the angles even though he had identified correctly without the program that both hips were not at the proper angle.
     While I talked with the doctor and stared back and forth from him to the screen showing the X-ray the nurse had slipped Froggie into a harness. She hated it. We returned and the doctor requested a larger harness simply because my daughter would quickly outgrow the small meant for children up to 3 months and she was put into a medium harness. I was given the run down of where to place all of the Velcro straps (there is SO much Velcro!) and marked off their placement with a pen.
     Per doctor's orders Froggie has to be in her harness whenever she sleeps (at least). If you have a child you may recall that infants sleep A LOT. We discussed whether it was worth removing the harness in between and was informed that the more she wears the harness the better it will work. Due to this conversation my husband and I have made the decision to leave her in it all day with the exception of bath time and some tummy time so that she can continue to work on her rolling skills.
     We arrived with our little tadpole and left Shriners approximately 2 hours as a Froggie with some new gear, a beanie baby kitty (that my daughter is equally as attached to as her Taggies blankie) and the start of a temporary new life style.

First day as a Froggie!