Post Surgery and Spica Cast- Week 1 Recap

"Nobody can be uncheered by a balloon."

-Winnie the Pooh

I expect the recaps will wane in a few weeks, but we still have plenty to review for now.  In the meantime... our daughter has recovered well from surgery and completed her first week in a spica cast!  One down, 17 to go.  Below are our most recent thoughts:

1. Earlier posts read that Bryant's Traction was successful.  What does this mean?
Her month of traction was intended to affect last Monday's surgery.  She achieved the best possible results on Monday, as traction adequately softened and stretched her musculature for Monday's purposes.  Beyond that, traction serves no direct correlation.  She will not endure traction for any successive surgeries.

2.  What is the long-term prognosis for Hip Chick, since traction enabled her best possible outcome for her first (and hopefully only) surgery?
The answer to that question is unclear.  Because we agreed to participate in Scottish Rite's study, her hip's development and treatment will continue to be tracked for the next 15 years. They will monitor and treat her hip until her skeletal development matures, around age 17.  The research team is hoping to determine long-term outcomes for traction participants.  Since that data has yet to be developed and her future will also depend on her individual skeletal development, it is now a 15 year waiting process to see what her needs will be.

3. What is the next milestone for Hip Chick?
She has an imaging appointment one week from tomorrow.  Scottish Rite will perform a CT to check her hip.  Sometimes, children who experience a successful closed reduction still have their femur fall back out of socket.  We need to ensure this does not happen to our daughter.  If it does, she will have an open hip surgery (open reduction) scheduled soon.  If her imaging looks good, we intend for her to return to daycare the next day.

4. How has Hip Chick transitioned from traction to being casted?  Does she seem to be happier?
It is too early to say.  She is happy to sit upright and was ecstatic to leave the house for lunch yesterday.  At the same time, she has bouts of frustration with her personal mobility, as she has less independent mobility now than ever before.  Due to the extensive length of her casting, we have a long time to assess her reaction to her situation.

5.  How have we transitioned in regard to her new diapering needs?
We are excited to report one week with no leaks!  We hope to continue to achieve success in this area for her, as there is no way to fully clean diaper leaks from her cast.

6.  What is the biggest adjustment for Mommy and Daddy?
We were ready to return the traction unit.  Spica cast diapering required a steep and quick learning curve.  Now that we have a process in place, the diapering is not so bad.  We have returned to an infant diapering schedule, however, and change her around 11pm to prevent leaks.  We won't sleep a full night for the next 17 weeks.

7. How is Hip Chick's pain management?
She has weaned off her hydrocodone and is now managing pain with ibuprofen.  She is able to communicate pain with the word "ow-ee" and we gauge her comfort by her verbiage and irritability.

8. What do we hope to achieve over the next week?
We plan one or two visits to her daycare, to help reacquaint her with friends and teachers.  We ordered a custom built spica desk for her to have at each home and school and look forward to their arrival. Lastly, we will continue to take her on excursions out of the house to build her confidence and ours.