The VanDemons: June 2007

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Ah, pointless technology

Thanks to my camera phone i can produce these cute images

It has been a very busy week.

On Wednesday Mieke had to go back to the Paediatrician for a routine check up. Sam mentioned to Dr. Mills that there was a history of congenital hip dysplasia in his family. Dr Mills had a good look at Mieke and felt that her left hip was not developing correctly. So we had to take Mieke for an ultrasound of her hips on Thursday morning. The ultrasound showed that Mieke has Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (DDH). The hospital faxed the results to Dr Mills and then booked us in with the Paediatric Orthopaedic surgeon, Dr Gary Nattrass, on Friday afternoon.

Dr. Nattrass explained to us that Mieke would need to wear a brace to correct the problem. The brace is designed to hold the hips at about 90 degrees, this helps the head of the femur shape the hip socket. Dr Nattrass explained to us that when babies are born their hips are formed from cartilage and the bone doesn't develop until later. So by wearing the brace before the bone has formed, we have a good chance of correcting and avoiding surgery.

We also discovered that DDH occurs in 1 in 1000-1500 births, with girls more commonly affected than boys. One or both hips may be involved, with the left hip more commonly affected that the right hip. DDH is not painful in infants.
Risk factors for DDH include:

female
family history of DDH
first pregnancy

So...............Mieke was fitted with the Pavlick Harness at about 7pm on Friday night. She coped pretty well, I didn't. It is thought that she will need to wear the harness full time for 12 weeks, much to my disappointment. That means only sponge baths, no showers and no baths and Mieke loves the water. We have to go back to Orthotist to have the harness adjusted in a fortnight. Then another ultrasound in 4 weeks and back to the Orthopaedic surgeon to check that the harness is doing what it should be.

If the harness does not correct the problem, the next step is to put Mieke under anaesthetic and put a dye into her hip to see if there is anything obstructing the growth of her hip bones. Hopefully it wont come to that.

On top of that we have had a visit to the Maternal Health nurse and parents group started last week as well. Needless to say, we are a bit weary and thankful that Mieke is sleeping about 8 hours most nights. Hopefully this week will be a little quieter.

Cheers,

Paula

Mieke all strapped into her brace

The back of Mieke's brace

This image shows how Mieke's hip has not formed properly

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

An update...

Mieke is having a snooze, so it seems like a great time to update the blog.

It has been a really busy couple of weeks. We have had a couple of trips to Ballarat to visit the besotted Grandies and lots of visitors over the long weekend.

Dean and Andrea and their gorgeous twins Charli and Cooper came to visit last week. It was great to catch up with them, although we spent most of the time talking about babies. Not sure what there was to talk about before hand!?! It was the first time Mieke had been with other babies and it was great to watch them interacting. They happily babbled away to each other.

We are all really well and Mieke is growing quickly she weighed in at 9lbs 2oz (4.090kgs) this morning. The Maternal health nurse was pleased with her progress.

Mieks is sleeping really well, last night she slept from 11pm until 8am. Hope it continues. Although I am still waking and getting up, just to make sure she is still breathing!

Tomorrow we are off to First Time Parents group. I am really looking forward to it, as I tend to feel a bit isolated during the week. It will be nice to get out and talk to some other people.

Thanks for the emails, I love to hear what everyone else is doing.

Pauls