Counsult Meeting Update

Sarah's consult came out the best it could have today. I was so scared that we were going to get in there and be told that she had to be put in a cast from her armpits to her knees. We walked out of there with a foam abductor brace, an ultrasound for later this week, and a see you in a few months. HOORAY!!!

There were a lot of big words thrown around today during the consult. All of which I knew and could understand while he was walking us through her x-rays (thanks Nursing school!!), but non of which I can remember after our long morning and my hour long nap to repeat here to all of you! HA!

So I will leave you with what I can remember in layman's terms. Her acetabulum, the socket part of the hip, is not fully 'encased' around the ball of the leg joint. See picture below; Part B.

Types of misalignments of femur head to socket in hip dysplasia. A: Normal. B: Dysplasia. C: Subluxation. D: Luxation

She is just above the average percentage-wise for her age for how shallow the acetabulum should be. If I'm remembering right it was something about a '28% angle this-or-that' and she was at 32%. So basically she will be in his foam abductor brace until that acetabulum 'grows' more and the hip is no longer 'dislocated'. Are you still following me?

Since Sarah is not hugely mobile she is to be in the brace 24/7. She didn't sit right in the carseat with it so we are nixing it for rides (OK'd by the Doctor) to places and of course she will take it off for baths. It will be interesting to see how she does with it for sleeping at night. I think it is almost a blessing in disguise because I currently nurse her to sleep and would love for her to get to sleep on her own!

An ultrasound is hopefully going to happen later this week. The Dr. wants to see a better picture of the acetabulum since the x-ray doesn't give that. That will give us a better picture of how long she might need to stay in the brace. He told us to expect 3-4 months of her in the brace. As long as it isn't a 20-pound spica cast I'll take it!!! :-)

I'll have to get a picture of her in the brace later this afternoon and post it with our weekend update. Hope I was able to make a clear picture of her hip situation. It turned out great and this is what I was praying for! We aren't sure where this puts us for the kids and me coming home home earlier than Matt but he is getting that straightened out this week at work. Everything we do travel-wise has to be OK'd by the military.

All for now, I'm going to pick up the house a bit!