The end of October we had a consult with his Orthopedic Surgeon, Ms Bijlsma and I finally saw an x-ray. I really don't understand ultra sounds but I understood the x-ray. The left hip is obviously not in the right spot. The ball is forming slower than the right. The right is perfect thanks to the harness.
She explained the process and the slightly more extreme things that may happen. It is an open reduction, where the operate and move tendons and cartilage to coax the hip into place. One of the more extreme bits that may happen is a femoral osteotomy, which is where the femur is cut to release pressure on the hip joint. Personally I really want to avoid this as there chance of his legs being different lengths. Having grown up with a leg length difference due to a femoral osteotomy, I am very much hoping that we can avoid all this.
He will be in hospital at least one night with possibly up to four nights depending on how his pain levels are. He will be casted the same way as before, in a spica cast, waist to ankle on the left, waist to knee on the right leg. He will stay in that cast for 6 weeks, have it changed and then another 6 weeks. Squeaky will be curtailed but thankful as of this moment he is not really crawling and certainly not walking or even wanting to put weight through his legs, we are not sure if this related to the hip. Once he is out I am be wanting those little legs to working hard!
We are currently planning out what we need and how we will survive the 3 months. We have a bean bag and hopefully enough clothing to go over him and his cast. It is all starting to get real, I am doing my best to not to get nervous. We can deal with it comes but the build up is tough.
The Big Hip update, is I will be having surgery to sort mine when Squeaky is done. I have agreed that with MR Hutt.
