Monitoring not treating for the moment.

The clinic has a lovely play area.

For the last week we have had almost interruption free sleep. It is astounding, wonderful and still a novelty. Last night Mr Gin and I were chatting and we realised that it is over nine months since this happened. We may get a full nights sleep but we were on average up four times a night, so sleep deprivation felt normal. I got to a point that I could not remember if I had got up but Squeaky had a different dummy or the such like that indicated I had been up plus being shattered! When I was very much out of action Mr Gin was up at least five times a night. So, this week has been bliss!

So, what has bought about this change? Squeaky is out the abduction brace! After six months in the brace at night and three months in the Spica cast we are not doing anything hip related treatment! This is brilliant because the last month has been a hard slog with the brace, he really was getting uncomfortable at night in it and at most he managed five hours before we had to take him out of the brace so he should sleep well. He was generally happy to go in the brace but it was increasingly obvious that he was getting unhappy with it.

We had the three months check-up last week and we both were hoping that because Squeaky had started walking that we could ditch the brace. We arrived in plenty of time to the appointment and went for the standard x-ray. This time we insisted that Squeaky have both his parents with him and as a result it was less stressful and much less upset on his behalf than last time. Holding your child down is never a nice experience but having both of us there meant it was a swift experience and he got Mummy and Daddy cuddles to help with the tears.

In medical speak his angles look good.

 We saw an Orthopaedic Surgeon, Nick, a new face as Ms Biljsma was on maternity leave. He checked out the x-ray which shows better coverage of the socket, also his walking is good, no sign of a limp and his movement feels solid, no shifting of the joint. He got in another consultant to look at all he had and they were impressed with the walking and the quickness he found a computer mouse!

We were told that we need to be vigilant for changes and any concerns with his movement we should get him in for another appointment. We will be back in three months to check progress and hope that there is no regression but the outcome of this visit is we are not treating but monitoring. I expect the monitoring will continue into his teens but it brilliant that we are brace free. Thinking back, we have done 11 months of bracing and Spica cast, this is almost half his life. Thank goodness it is over for now. Now for more sleeping through and learning to run and skip!