Megans DDH Journey Part 1

Sorry for the delay in getting this one written,been one thing after another lately with little bear having croup and all of us full of colds.

So here goes with this one, I wasn't sure I'd be ready to write about megans journey yet because it still hurts with all she had to endure at such a young age. But I think I'm at a stage where I am strong enough to at least attempt to talk about it. I will make this part one of 2 as its a very long story.

So going back to 2013 and 1year old Megan, because she was early her development was a little delayed so she was a late crawler and a late walker. Looking back the signs were there when she began army shuffling along the floor dragging one leg, at the time we we’re unaware and thought she was just a little lazy…..but when at 17/18months she began walking we soon discovered there was more of an issue. She was walking with a limp

I decided we needed to seek advice so I took her to baby clinic and consulted a health visitor who told us we needed to see our gp and maybe be referred for physio. So on that advice we did exactly that. We took her to the docs who referred us to a podiatrist and to physio clinic. Where it was discovered there may be some issues and we were to be referred to a consultant at our local hospital for further investigation to get a proper diagnosis.

Our local hospital didn’t exactly do things quickly so we did have to push to get an appointment earlier than they were telling us. By the time the appointment came around i had just found out we were expecting again so I was an emotional wreck anyway. We took megan to her appointment where before seeing the doctor she had to undergo an x ray which for a nearly 2year old was traumatic enough. She absolutely hated having it done…..so with anxieties running high we went into see the doctor.

You know that sinking feeling you sometimes get when you go into see the doctor you know there’s bad news coming, well I got it and then some…….we sat down and we were confronted with Megans earlier x ray. There was a problem and it wasn’t a small one her hip was completely out of joint and her pelvis was pushed up out of place. (I don’t have pics from this as it was a very traumatic time and I can’t look at that very first x-ray pic) so we had a diagnosis Megan had a condition known as DDH(developmental dysplasia of the hip) but as it was a late discovery it had also pushed her pelvis upwards…..by this time I was a blubbering mess of hormones. How could this happen to my baby and what happens next?

Megan was to be referred to another hospital (RJAH) to meet a wonderful paediatric consultant who specialised in megans condition…… we got our referral appointment pretty quickly and little lady had to have more xrays and we were told she’d need an operation to put the hip back in place and pull the pelvis back into position which meant she’d have wires and pins inserted and she had to have a piece of bone removed from the top of her leg due to the significant size difference in her legs causing her limp.

So in July 2014 megan turned 2 and in the August she was due her operation…..which meant 4hrs in surgery and a week in hospital and 6weeks in a cast from ankles to her chest. Then back in for a week to have cast removed and intense in-house physio and hydrotherapy to get her back on her feet.

Night before her op was restless…..both myself and megan were up at 4am i felt awful as she wasn’t able to eat or drink. And I just felt sick(part morning nausea,part anxiety over the op). We got to the hospital and her surgery was booked for late morning so we settled into her room on the lovely Alice ward and waited to see doc and anthestist…..she was given some meds to make her drowsy and we were able to walk upto theatre with her. I kissed my baby goodnight for the 4hrs or so she’d be in surgery and daddy went in whilst she had anthestic…..they were the longest 4-4and a half hours of our lives. We managed to eat and keep occupied so we had energy for our baby. Finally late afternoon we got a call she was in recovery…..we went up and she was very drowsy and upset and uncomfortable. Seeing her in her cast made it all the more real😢 I spent the week in hospital with her camped out on a camp bed next to her cot whilst daddy visited daily and we had many other visitors.

We can’t thank The RJAH enough and all the nurses on Alice ward and her amazing consultant enough.

Well i think this post has got long enough and I’m feeling a tad emotional about it now so I will leave it here. And part 2 will be coming in a few days time when I’m feeling 100% and little georgie bear is hopefully back to her self. There will be pics in the part 2 post.

Thank you for reading

Kayleigh x