Hi All,
Kell4 and Belfie my heart goes out to you both. I know exactly how you feel.
Kell4- To give you some idea of what to expect the spica Hayley went into went from her waist to her toes and had a bar across it between the ankles (they leave a hole around the groin area). It was very upsetting to see at first and also hard because she was also upset. However she did adapt to it very well and by the next day she was fine although it took alot longer for me to get used to it, it is very hard to see your gorgeous baby in a spica and I cried alot for the first few days. Hayley is also 7 months now and weighs 6.5kg and like I said before she adapted very quickly to it. It did affect her night sleep for awhile but we were told to expect this. I also have an older son and after some intial questioning he has been really good and understanding with her (he is 5). Hayley is completely immobile in her spica so we have to make sure that we are alternating her positions alot so she isn't always in the same postion ie on tummy, laying down, propping her up (a bean bag is good for this). We have two weeks left in the spica (it has been on for 3 months with a change at 6 weeks and 10 weeks) and then she goes into a brace for 2 months. The x-ray we had last wednesday showed the hip to be nicely in the socket so although it has been difficult to see her in it, it has so far done its job.
Belfie- Hayley was four months when her dysplasia was detected (missed by 2 paeds and a clinic nurse). She has it only in her right hip. It was a clinic nurse (a different one) who picked it up. She wrote a letter which I took to my GP the next day. He sent me for an x-ray and we got the results that day. He then referred me to a paediatric orthopedic surgeon and I got in a week later (we asked to be put on a cancellation list so got in a bit earlier). He said that although she was only 4 months its not as early as they like to find it so she had go into a spica for three months. He put the spica on about 5 days after our first appointment. I would think you should get the results of the u/s back the same day and then get in to see the ortho as soon as possible, so that everything should happen quickly. From the time of detection to the time the spica went on was 2 weeks. Questions I asked included developmental delays eg rolling, crawling etc, length of time spica and brace will be on for (5 months for Hayley if everything goes the way it should). I found that our ortho explained alot to us in the initial meeting and my questions just stemmed from that conversation.
Please feel free to ask me any questions as I know your heads are probably swimming at the moment. I hope I have been of some help and I wish you both well!
Monica