Headed for hip and femur surgery in April
We first learned Grace had hip dysplasia during her last hospital stay back in the fall of 2017. She was in the hospital from having bladder reconstruction surgery. She was having severe abdominal pain and underwent a series of xrays and CT scans. It was during those scans of her belly that they picked up that she was developing adhesions around her itestines. On a side note the xrays also showed that her hip joints were not sitting properly in their sockets and she had hip dysplasia.
Grace has been able to walk since she was around 2 years old. Her right leg calf is less muscular and she has a lot of tension in it. She also doesn’t have much feeling from her hips to her knees. She wears a special brace and orthotic (smo) on her right calf and foot to help compensate for the weakness and foot drop. With all of this, we didn’t really pay too much attention to what we call her “swagger”, her walking just has always seemed a little off. Low and behold there was some more things going on.
Her upcoming sugery will help create an improved hip socket but also angle her femurs so her hip joints will remain in place in her sockets. We aren’t really sure that this will correct her “swagger” but it will keep her from having more degenerative hip problems as she gets older with the goal of keeping her a life long ambulator. We have really struggled with the decision to have this surgery for her. In fact, we have gotten several “2nd” opinions and even cancelled her first surgery. A lot of people don’t do this surgery for people who have sb because the body and muscular structure of kids with sb tend to have hips that always dislocate themselves. Grace of course is the exception to everything. Her medical teams feel that this will help to keep her walking her whole life and that she really has a lot of strong muscles that are intact to support having this surgery.
That being said, we have been warned this is a really rough surgery with quite a long recovery. Her surgeon feels it will be a year before she returns to where she is functioning now. She will have to have the spica cast for around a month and a lot of physical therapy to strengthen her muscles to walk again.
Grace has been able to walk since she was around 2 years old. Her right leg calf is less muscular and she has a lot of tension in it. She also doesn’t have much feeling from her hips to her knees. She wears a special brace and orthotic (smo) on her right calf and foot to help compensate for the weakness and foot drop. With all of this, we didn’t really pay too much attention to what we call her “swagger”, her walking just has always seemed a little off. Low and behold there was some more things going on.
Her upcoming sugery will help create an improved hip socket but also angle her femurs so her hip joints will remain in place in her sockets. We aren’t really sure that this will correct her “swagger” but it will keep her from having more degenerative hip problems as she gets older with the goal of keeping her a life long ambulator. We have really struggled with the decision to have this surgery for her. In fact, we have gotten several “2nd” opinions and even cancelled her first surgery. A lot of people don’t do this surgery for people who have sb because the body and muscular structure of kids with sb tend to have hips that always dislocate themselves. Grace of course is the exception to everything. Her medical teams feel that this will help to keep her walking her whole life and that she really has a lot of strong muscles that are intact to support having this surgery.
That being said, we have been warned this is a really rough surgery with quite a long recovery. Her surgeon feels it will be a year before she returns to where she is functioning now. She will have to have the spica cast for around a month and a lot of physical therapy to strengthen her muscles to walk again.
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