Hip Chick is wrapping up her third week of regained mobility... how has time passed so quickly? Christmas week has ended, but not without extra cuddles from Mommy and Daddy. We enjoyed additional days away from work and passed them with home cooking and movies.
Hip Chick enjoyed her first treat of fizzy juice.
Mommy spoiled Daddy with our annual Christmas dinner of oversized Peking duck wontons.
Many families exchange presents this time of year, but we already received our gift: our baby was walking! We had not expected to see her walk again this year. Perhaps miracles still occur after all.
Below are this week's thoughts:
1. Hip Chick seems to be doing well- has she moved past the possibility for complications?
Not necessarily. Just this week, we noticed something peculiar with her suture thread (stitching). Her incision looks good and the thread pokes out of her skin, on either side of the incision. On one side, the thread has grown longer and longer such that nearly two inches of thread are hanging. It also has grown more irritated, such that it finally developed a pimple and white head around the thread. We noticed the white head at bathtime last night and called Scottish Rite. A charge nurse and on call physician discussed the symptoms and advised that Hip Chick likely has a suture abscess. (If you search on the internet, you may also see the term "spitting suture.")
What does this mean? This means that we are monitoring her for infection. She has a follow up visit schedule in early January, but will need medical attention sooner if she develops a fever, if the abscess develops significant drainage, and/or if the abscess becomes hot to the touch. Along with this, we need to need to monitor her incision to ensure it does not develop similar issues. The nurse specifically asked us last night whether the incision still looked healthy in spite of the suture.
Obviously, there Is something about the end stitch and/or the dissolvable thread which her body dislikes. We were approved to dab the abscess with Neosporin. In an earlier recap, we discussed that she clawed off her bandaging two days after the pin removal. Mommy wonders: was she feeling some form of reaction to the stitching then?
2. What mobility gains did Hip Chick achieve In week three?
Our little hippie is a busy girl! She is climbing with greater ease, although she leads mostly with her right leg. She can lift her right foot over her head, but the range of motion on her left side is still limited. Her gait is quicker. The big news came on Friday: Her daycare teacher was thrilled to relay that she crawled through a long tunnel and she sat on a tricycle! She wanted to push the tricycle's pedals, but could not manage just quite yet (she could not ride a tricycle prior to surgery). We are all so excited for her! At three weeks, her mobility is nearly where she was prior to the second surgery- and she is trying new things!
3. Prior posts indicated a continuation of sleep issues- have they resolved?
Unfortunately not. They do not occur every night and seem to occur despite differing activities/environments during her day- so we have yet to isolate a "trigger." As mentioned in a prior post, Mommy had previously polled the support group on the matter and lingering sleep disturbances are a common issue. For the Hip Chick household, we are challenged in that we cannot easily differentiate between a night terror and true call of distress. Even if Hip Chick is "sleeping" through the shreiks and screams, the rest of the household is not. If this does not improve by her next appointment, we will ask her surgeon whether it is time to involve Child Life (social work/psychology).
4. Should other "hip" parents use Hip Chick's milestones as a barometer for their own children?
In short- no. Each child will move at his or her own pace. While our daughter wanted to walk mere hours after cast removal, some children may not attempt to move for weeks. Each end of the spectrum (and all the points between) are all "normal." While we are ecstatic with our daughter's achievements, our challenge is that she regularly out paces our expectations. We often feel unprepared when her next "watch this" moment arrives. As this has been a bit of a theme for the year, we suspect she will be surprising us in similar fashion for quite some time.
5. Have we altered her diet or considered supplementation to aid the healing process?
I know of some parents who thought adding a vitamin D supplement was a smart choice. For Hip Chick, we offer a well rounded diet (her school is of huge assistance, with a full-time, on site chef/nutritionist) and give her a daily chewable multivitamin. She seems to crave a lot of dairy products, so we give her fortified 2% organic milk as well as yogurt and cheeses. Her daycare has her class play outside daily, weather permitting (the body uses sunshine to build vitamin D). Otherwise- no.
6. Weather has grown colder- are we still dressing her In thigh high socks and dresses?
Her legs' and hip's sensitivity has lessened, so we have just begun dressing her in loose fleece pants. They are still very soft, but provide added warmth. She will wear the thigh highs again as weather warms.
7. What will the next week bring for Hip Chick?
A new year. Hopefully one with much more freedom and much less pain.
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