The Beast is Free!!!

Remember when Baby R was born with the nasty Hip Displaysia issue??

She went from the, Kicker Pavlik Harness that despite the 98% success rate her hips somehow healed out of socket so she had to endure the Operating Room and moved on to...

The Spica Cast!  This was a nightmare when she had such horrible muscle spasms and literally screamed every 90 seconds ALL NIGHT LONG (NOT an exaggeration!!).  Those nasty muscle spasms ended up popping one of her hips back out of the socket so she had to go back to, guess where...  The O.R.!

She was then fitted with the fantastic red cast which she wore the longest.  Despite having to lay on her back for months (Do we need to revisit the helmet??  Let me know if you don't remember.) we did find some activities she could do...

Rody has had a lot of miles put on his old bones between all 3 of my kiddos!  He's been a good toy.  However, the day did come when Baby R did indeed have to face the O.R once again...

And she was fitted for a smaller Spica cast-only to the knees this time (and the stupid hospital finally restocked the pink casting material, yeah!!!).  It was a good day when I got to see her legs wiggle again.  Her legs were SO purple though, I was worried about her circulation but found out that coloring is normal as long as her feet felt normal temperature.  The purple legs faded away with time along with all the yucky, flaky dead skin.  But alas, despite the casts 95% success rate her dang left hip began to loosen up after the pink cast came off so she was fitted for....

The Cruiser Brace.  Which by far, out of all the devices she's worn, this was the easiest, just bulky and obnoxious to travel with is all.

This is the stock photo off the companies website.  I never took a pic of Baby R while she was in this but you see what she would have looked like minus the standing, she's almost 2 and new to using her legs.  This device claims to have a 89% success rate so we'll see...

So on to the AWESOME update...She's a Free Bird!  Just this past week we had yet another x-ray done which had shown her stubborn left hip FINALLY fall into normal range.  Her Orthopedist was pleased enough to say she was ready to try healing on her own.  So, between now and December, if her hips don't move and continue to stay put then she'll stay out of the brace.  However, with Hip Displaysia there is always a possibility her hips could stop forming and growing with her so she will be watched until at least the age of 8.  It's already been a long road with her, but I know we aren't officially out of the woods yet.

It's a little strange putting her to bed at night not having to strap her into anything or calling my babysitters to come over 15 minutes early just to learn how to properly put her all together.  I hope and pray that as severe as a case she was, Mother Nature will finally take over and do what she was supposed to do the first time- merge the hips into the sockets and keep them there to grow normally!

FYI-Baby R's nickname is "Beast" and for good reason, she's a handful but we love her!  Also, did someone count how many times I used the word, "despite"?  I'm sure it was like, eleventy.