My first daughter, Chloe, had uneven bum creases when she was a baby but an ultrasound showed that her hips were all good. At that time I didn’t know what infant hip dysplasia was and because she was all clear, I didn’t think much more about it.
My second daughter, Mackenzie, on the other hand had two clicky hips from day dot. She wasn’t a breech baby and there were no complications with her birth so it was a bit of a surprise. When Mackenzie was 2 days old, the Paediatrician told us Mackenzie would need to get a hip scan and that an appointment would be made for her. A few weeks later we received a letter in the mail with details of an ultrasound appointment at Box Hill Hospital. There didn’t appear to be any urgency (the appointment was a couple of months away) so I wasn’t too concerned.
At Mackenzie’s 8 week checkup with the Maternal Child Health Care Nurse, she told us she was very concerned about Mackenzie’s clicky hips and suggested we make an urgent appointment with our GP to get a referral for an ultrasound ourselves. She didn’t want us to wait for the ultrasound appointment at the hospital.
The next day, I got the referral and the day after that I took Mackenzie for an ultrasound while my husband, Rich, stayed home with Chloe (who was 2 years old and probably napping or having a tantrum at the time). During the scan the technician commented that there was “definitely a problem” with Mackenzie’s hips that would require treatment. He asked a senior technician to come in the room, take a look and confirm. They told me that Mackenzie’s left hip was dislocated. They said they would prepare a report for our GP and that I should make an appointment to discuss the next steps with our doctor ASAP.
I drove home feeling super upset and stressed out, imagining my precious baby in intense pain with a dislocated hip (despite the fact that she was a cruisey baby and showed no obvious sign of pain or distress). By the time I arrived home 15 minutes later there were missed calls on my mobile from the Radiology office and also from our GP’s office which I listened to in our driveway while Mackenzie slept in her car seat. The message from the Radiology office said that we need to contact our GP urgently. The message from our GP’s office said that an urgent appointment had been made for Mackenzie and that I needed to bring her in immediately. The sudden urgency made me panic.
My husband came out to the car to find out what happened at the ultrasound. I basically cried my eyes out, gave him a quick update, pulled myself together then drove straight to the GP’s office. Mackenzie slept peacefully the entire time. Our normal GP wasn’t working that day so we saw another doctor for the first time. He explained that Mackenzie had hip dysplasia in both hips and confirmed that her left hip was dislocated. He explained that she may need to go into a plaster spica cast and commented on how awful it is for kids to wear a spica cast during summer in Melbourne. He told me, worst case scenario, she would need surgery to have a pin inserted and best case scenario, she would need to wear a brace. He explained the next step was to see a specialist. We were referred to the hip clinic at Monash Children’s Hospital in Clayton. I didn’t know anything about casts, braces or hip dysplasia. I had a lot of googling and crying to do.
To be continued...
Stay tuned for our next blog: Mackenzie's Story - Part 2: The Pavlik Harness
For more posts about life with a baby receiving treatment for developmental dysplasia of the hip, browse our blog here: https://www.hipsleepers.com.au/blog/
To view our range of specialty hip dysplasia baby clothes and accessories, click here: https://www.hipsleepers.com.au/shop-all/