About Addison

Addison 6 days old all dressed up to go home from hospital

On February 26, 2011 my husband and I welcomed our first child...a beautiful little girl that we named Addison. She came into the world through a difficult delivery that ended she and her mum in the hospital for a week following her birth due to a blood infection her mum developed during labour. That first week in hospital was very difficult because the doctors were concerned that Addie may have contracted the infection as well, so she was very closely monitored, hooked up to IV antibiotics and poked and prodded a lot (poor little bean)! When we were finally able to take her home we were so thrilled, it was such a great feeling to have her home with us and get this family act on the road!

The following week I took Addie in for her two week check up and my doctor started asking me about whether or not there were any hip issues in our family. My husband's sister had hip dysplasia as an infant which was caught at 6 months and corrected by wearing a brace for three months. My doctor decided to send us for an ultrasound that week to check into little Addie's hips and to also check her kidneys as she was also born with a little skin tag on her right ear. Following the ultrasound we got the good news / bad news. Good news was that her kidneys were gangbusters, no issues there but nothing prepared us for the bad news... both of her hips were dislocated and the orthopeadic surgeon was reccommending we put Addie in what is called a Pavlik harness for three weeks, at which time we will do another ultrasound to see where whether or not the harness was working as it needed to.

Addison in her Pavlik Harness

The day they put the Pavlik harness on my little angel, I cried....a LOT. Her dad was also very emotional. It was so hard to see our perfect little girl confined to that harness. It looked like some kind of medieval torture device, but the doctors reassured me that it didn't bother her at all and was not as bad as it looked. Well Addison didn't get that message, as she had two pretty fussy days. She was inconsolable the first day she had it on but by day three she was getting used to it (and so was her mum and dad). Each week we had to visit the doctor at the children's hospital for a harness "adjustment" and after three weeks we returned for another ultrasound. This ultrasound, unfortunately, did not give us the news we were hoping for. The radiologist informed us that her hips had shown no improvement. So, back to the orthopedic surgeon we went.

Following the ultrasound our orthopedic surgeon removed the pavlik harness (which was great!) but gave us information on the next step. Addison would have to have surgery - a closed reduction to be exact. The closed reduction is a surgical procedure during which they put Addison asleep, inject dye into her joints and try to position the hip joints into place manually. Following surgery she will be placed in a spica cast which goes from just below her armpits to her ankles...poor beanie!

Finally out of her Pavlik

While I was so happy to have my little squishy baby back free from her harness, I was very scared about the surgery. It terrified me to think of my little baby going under anaesthesia, having her groin cut open and (what I envisioned was) having her little joints rammed back in place. The surgery day came and went and Addison got through it with flying colours. The cast change day has also come and gone. Both times, she amazed us at how well she adapted and we are so very thankful they caught it as early as they did.

We are not sure what the future holds or how long it will take to correct her hips, but we take comfort in the fact that they will be corrected. This blog is our way of capturing her journey for her so she can look back on it, but also to provide information to our family and friends and, most importantly, any others out there dealing with the same thing. We know how scary and uncertain things seem when you first hear the news that your baby has hip dysplasia and how much we needed to be reassured we were not alone and that there was hope.

Thanks for taking time to read about Addie's journey.

5 months old and doing great!