The Cast Removal

We eagerly made our way back up to Dallas on October 17th to get Cameron's cast taken off. We were SO excited and we are pretty sure that she knew what was up too. We had been telling her for a week, "They are gonna take your cast off soon!" And she would smile and touch her cast and say, "Off!" We didn't have to wait at all. As soon as we arrived they brought us back to a secluded room (most likely tucked away so that others can't hear the children crying and screaming) where they would remove her cast. A very nice man came in and sort of told us what to expect. She wasn't going to be happy and we just needed to turn her away from the saw and keep a hand towel between her and it so that no debris would fly into her eyes. I'm actually not sure what they call the tool they use. The word saw sounds a lot scarier than this thing really is. Even if it were to touch your skin, it would't cut. It is the sound it makes that is so terrifying to children. As soon as we laid her down on the table and he turned it on, she came unglued. It was hard to watch the terror in her eyes, I had never seen her that upset before. But it was fast and within 2 minutes we had our baby back! The man left us alone for a bit to clean her up, put a real diaper on her, and of course to have a moment of crying/leg squeezing! We then headed over to radiology for her CT. Cam wasn't too upset anymore and she just started rubbing herself where the cast had been and saying "legs!" So sweet! The CT results once again looked great. There is no visible growth of the femur just yet, but it is still soon.  Dr. Sucato said that he wouldn't need to see her again for 6 months and that within the next 6 months to year we will just want to: 1) Make sure the hip stays in place and 2) begin to see bone growing and replacing cartilage within the femur. Also, between then and about the age of 4 or 5, we need to see her hip socket come down and enclose the femur better so that both hip sockets are symmetrical.
We will be returning sooner than 6 months, however, because they want to check out baby William's hips 6 weeks postpartum and they will go ahead and to a follow up CT on Cameron at that time. The chances of him having a similar condition are pretty slim considering he is not the first born and  a male, but it will make us feel tons better!  We have been so blessed to be able to receive care for Cameron at Scottish Rite. They continue to impress us with each visit.
I can't believe the journey is over (let's hope, forever!) When Cam was first diagnosed back in May, it seemed like our world was just coming to an end. We were both so overcome with grief and well, just heartbroken for our little girl to have to go through something that sounded so horrific. Looking back, it doesn't seem that bad at all. Traction was the toughest part and the spica cast was definitely trying, but time just flew by. I thank God every day for Cameron's happy demeanor and continual patience with it all. She was the reason it never seemed so bad. She never once complained and we all just made the best of each day. My heart goes out to any parent that gets the DDH diagnosis, it is so scary. But I do hope that some make it to this blog and can take comfort in knowing that it is not the end of the world and it is totally do-able! Cameron's story, thus far, is a success with DDH. I don't want to count my eggs before they've hatched. you hear stories all the time of kids that have to do it all over again or worse and I know there is no promise that she won't have to be one of those kids. BUT for now, I am taking a BIG sigh of relief and just happy to have her sweet legs back in my arms!
It has been 1 week today since her cast removal and she is crawling and trying to stand up on her own already! She is happier than ever.

Cast Change & 2nd CT

It has been a while since I last updated. Cameron's cast change was on September 2nd and it went really well. The CT results looked very good, so we were surprised with the awesome news that she would only need to spend 6 more weeks in a cast! And this cast only went to the knee on her right leg, so we got part of sweet, chubby leg to squeeze during that 6 weeks. It was a long day at the hospital and she was not happy at all when waking up from anesthesia, but we left happy and high on good news.