No legendary heroine overcomes great odds without a setback of sorts and today one surfaced for our daughter. She visited Scottish Rite to reinforce her petrie cast and have a precautionary xray early this morning. Unfortunately, the xray exposed that her femoral head has begun to pull away from her socket. It is not (yet) fully dislocated, but required immediate attention.
As it was obvious that the petrie cast was not helping her, cast removal accelerated to today. Now, her surgeon is redirecting her from casting to orthotics. She has been fitted for a Rhino Brace (photo, above). She will wear it to sleep during the next two weeks. Her surgeon wants to see whether this will stop her femur's migration. At her next appointment on July 16th, she will have another xray. If all looks good, we will discuss how to progress with the brace. If not, we will schedule an open reduction, most likely accompanied by a pelvic osteotomy. Her surgeon advised that he is still hopeful and so we will do our best to remain as well- although doubts are starting to blur our thoughts.
Now the question lurking in everyone's mind is: If we have to schedule an open reduction, have the past 4 1/2 months been a failure? Not necessarily. Her hip responded to each step as well as hoped, until now. Her surgeon has been very cautious and plain spoken from the start. Her hip socket's malformation and the late age of her diagnosis have prompted him to be reserved in his projections and, well, he had advised all along that this could occur. But he does seem to think that the work we have done thus far could help her avoid a femoral osteotomy. This is a good thing. More on that subject later... we have two weeks of hope ahead of us! That is a gift that not everyone is afforded.
The immediate task at hand was addressing these super scaley legs. What a far cry from the legs we tearfully bid goodbye 4 1/2 months ago! Her surgeon advised a bubble bath to help relieve her legs and who am I to go against medical advice? And so we treated her to her first bath since February 23rd.
I had a new set of bathtub flutes set aside for such an occasion. (Who doesn't keep an emergency set of tub flutes on hand?) Mommy seemed a bit more excited by them than Hip Chick, so I pulled out her old favorites.
She seemed a little apprehensive at first, but
it was mere moments before she was singing and splashing. We saw glimpses of her that had faded after that last bath in February- being in the water brings her such joy! She asked me to let her swim and a lump swelled in my throat.
Oh, how I have mised these times! Petrie cast or no... this was a special memory. Even if she must progress to a more invasive means of treatment, perhaps it is best that she be afforded a little break. A bit of extra happiness is good for the soul.
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