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
1 comment:
Hi Paula,
Robyn just sent me your website - Mieke is absolutely gorgeous.
Don't worry too much - although I know that's a really useless thing to say. Babies are so plastic at this age that the brace will probably fix it. Arlo was born with a dislocated left hip and had to wear double towelling nappies until he was about 5 months old, by which time it was fixed. But you can imagine a tiny baby in double towelling nappies - he looked like a little clown toy in his Bonds baby suit. Anyway, late congratulations to you all, hope to see her before she gets too much older.
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