we are home

This morning didn't go as expected, but as the day has gone on, I'm not as upset about it ... in fact, it's a bit more on the positive side than I realized ...

She went in for surgery ... anesthesia, the whole bit ... but ...

Dr Olney was unable to reduce Annabelle's hip ... (i.e. he couldn't get it to align, and her right hip is still out of place).  Her left hip is still where it needs to be and he said it looks good.
So ... instead of casting her today ... we are home.  She will continue the brace in order to provide support to her left hip, but we will wean her out of the brace.  She can now have 4 hours out of the brace a day.

This fall, when she is older, and her bones are more mature, she will have an OPEN reduction (instead of the closed reduction that was scheduled for today).  It is just like it sounds ... they will go into her hip ... clean out any tissue that is obstructing the joint and preventing it from aligning, and reduce the hip that way.  Check out this link for more info.
Afterwards, she'll be in the spica cast for 6 weeks, and then back to the brace she's in now.  No re-casting.  Just one surgery.   Hopefully, that will fix her hip. 

In the meantime, not having her dislocated hip braced will not affect the outcome.  Dr Olney says this ... he's been doing this for 20+ years ... he's the Chief of Orthopedic Surgery ... I trust him.  (okay, mom?)

Ultimate Goal:  Healthy Hips, full function.

They told us to expect her to be veeeeeeeery sleepy for the rest of the day, and she might have a rough 24 hours. 

I had planned to do a photo tour of our day ... (last photo of legs, etc...) but since that is irrelevant now ... I'll do a mini tour ...

Annabelle couldn't have any breastmilk after 1:30am.  She could have clear liquids (i.e. Pedialyte) until 4am, so I woke her at 3:30 and she drank 5oz.  She didn't really wake up, but she did drink.

Here we go!

scared Mommy, hungry baby

I'll be okay mommy, and aren't I cute?  Won't you please feed me?

Sleeeeeepy baby in the recovery room.  It took removing her IV (in her elbow at the bottom of the pic) to wake her up. She nursed after that.  They told us she might be very sleepy for the rest of the day ...

After arriving home ... my happy, happy girl.

She's zonked out now, and snoring ... hopefully the rest of today and tonight go well.

The wait is over.

I am so glad that today is here.
The building anticipation of the last four weeks is quickly coming to a finish. Over the entire weekend, I just wanted today to be here. I want the surgery over. I want to know that my baby is okay. I want to hear the good news that they were able to reduce her hip and she is in the cast.

Her surgery is scheduled for 7:30. We have to be there at 6:00.
Her cutoff for milk was 1:30, and for clear liquids (Pedialyte) was 4:00.
She normally sleeps from 9:30ish to 5am. I didn't wake her at 1:00 for a breastfeed (mostly because I went to bed around midnight), but I did pick her up at 3:30 for a bottle of Pedialyte. It took 30 minutes, but she drank 5oz. It was weird giving her a bottle.

She's snoozing away now - oblivious to the upcoming events for the day. I'm glad for that. I'm happy every day that this was caught early so that we can be on the road to recovery before she ever remembers it.

I've never prayed this much in my life. Right now I have an eerie sense of calm about me. I hope it continues throughout the day.

adios, turtle shell!

I have started affectionately referring to the Rhino cruiser as Annabelle's turtle shell. In fact, the next one she has, I think I will design to look like a turtle shell --- it sure feels like one.

I emailed Dr Olney's nurse last night. We hadn't thought to ask if Annabelle needed to stay in her Rhino prior to surgery. We assumed she did, but after thinking, we wondered if a couple days out of it would make any difference. We're both longing so much for some cuddly snuggles with our tiny princess. She's been in some form of brace for 8 weeks now. She's 15 weeks old. That's more than half her life.

I got a response back early this morning saying we could be brace free! Yippee! She went to school today without her brace (I had to work). Coming home tonight, it was a bit odd to hold her. She seemed so ... floppy. Like a baby. I'm used to a baby that doesn't bend, doesn't mold, doesn't contour into me when snuggling. It was nice beyond words, but a little strange, to be honest.

I did put her into her brace for sleeping tonight. Even though we can be brace free for a couple days ... I still want to baby that healing left hip.

spica, here we come

Our visit this morning had both some expected, and some unexpected news ...

The Rhino cruiser helped Annabelle's left hip. It's now in place, and Dr Olney anticipates it should stay there. It will need to continue to be braced for awhile to provide stability to the hip joint as it grows and hardens.

It did not help her right hip. He said that there is no improvement. So we are going to continue ahead with the scheduled closed reduction on Monday (today is Thursday). During this, she will be put under general anesthesia, dye will be injected into her hip, and this will allow him to reduce the hip, or manually put it in place. He may or may not need to do a tenotomy, to cut a tendon to allow the hip to be reduced. If all goes well, the hip will reduce, and she will be in a spica cast for 3 months. The cast will be changed out after 6 weeks.

If the hip does NOT reduce, we will not do the cast, she will go back into her Rhino cruiser until she's 6 months old, when she would have an OPEN reduction, or actual surgery on the hip joint.

We asked him if surgery was the best option, seeing as the Rhino cruiser helped her left hip - could it help her right one? He said if there had been any improvement, they might try that first, but seeing as her right hip is essentially unchanged - the best option going forward is the closed reduction/spica cast. Both hips will be in the cast, and this will not hurt her healing left hip at all - but it will continue to provide support.

If she's placed in the Spica cast, we'll likely stay overnight on Monday. If the hip doesn't reduce, we'll go home the same day.

I'm praying for the cast.

safe

turn up your sound, click this, and listen while you read (right click to open in a new window)

I had to go to work this morning for a class, and I was listening to K-Love, as I always do when driving.

A song was playing that calmed me, soothed me, and terrified me. I was sobbing by the end, and almost had to pull off the road.

In five days, I will be leaving my baby in the hands of doctors and nurses and praying all goes well. I will walk her to a door, and hand her over. The door will close, and I won't be there with her. Her life will be in their hands.

The lyrics to the song reminded me that both I, and my baby girl will be safe. God will keep her safe.
I imagined singing in my head to her before she goes back:

"You're not alone. You will be safe in His arms, You will be safe in His arms, the hands that hold the world are holding your heart, this is the promise He made, He will be with you always, when everything is falling apart, You will be safe in His arms."

The same goes for me as I am probably pacing the waiting room ...

I think the anxiety of the looming day is worse than the actual day will probably be.

I'm trying to be calm. But I'm scared to death.

1 Peter 5:7 (NIV) Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

hope?

I wasn't going to do it.

But I did.

This morning on the way to work, I was thinking about Annabelle's upcoming cast placement and surgery, and I had a fleeting thought ... what if we go Thursday and the Rhino cruiser WORKED? What if all this stress and anxiety and preparation has been for nothing?

What if?

The chances of that happening are so small, I have gone forward with the expectation of the cast. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised than have my hopes dashed when we see Dr Olney for her re-ultrasound.

I wasn't going to hope ... but I want to.

Torticollis

I first noticed something was different about a month ago. I noticed that it was easier to feed Annabelle on my left side, she seemed more comfortable, and was able to turn her head all the way to her right side to eat. She could basically eat lying flat on her back with her head turned. (there's actually a pic of her doing it on my breastfeeding with the PH post). On my right side, I had to modify how I held her because she wouldn't turn her head. At first, I thought it was related to the PH/RC, but it's more of a neck issue.

I didn't think much of it until I was reading up on hip dysplasia, and it said that infants with hip dysplasia can have neck problems - in fact, that's how some DDH cases are diagnosed. 'Torticollis" was the term I saw, and after looking it up, it seemed as though it fit Annabelle pretty well. I looked back through her pics from the last month, and in most of them, her head is tilted to the same side. It's the same side she favors, and cries in pain if I try to turn her head the other way.

We don't have her next well visit scheduled, but I'm going to ask Dr Olney (our orthopedic Dr) on Thursday when we return for an ultrasound.

Follow up: Dr Olney did say she has mild torticollis, but that it should resolve as she gets older. We can do stretches to encourage her to turn her head to the left.