Sorry it has taken a while to send this up-date. Last Monday, October 15th, Devin went in to have a Hip Spica Cast put on. They used Anesthesia and he was required to stay over night. The Hip Spica Cast is essentially a full body cast. It makes him weigh about 20 pounds which takes some getting used to. You can't just pick him up by the arms as they would be quickly dislocated as well!
He had the Pavlik harness on for 5 weeks. He was squirming so much that the harness was not staying in place so she put small pliable type casts on his legs, from the thigh down, for the last 3 of the 5 weeks. That still was not keeping them from rolling out, so she went to the Hip Spica but is hoping to go back to the Pavlik when the hips are more stable. I don't have all the terminology down but it sounds like the muscles on the top of his legs are more developed then those on the bottom so he tends to raise his legs up and they roll out of socket. She plans to change out the Hip Spica every 6 weeks for growth and check on the development at that time with some kind of dye test. They did the dye test when they put it on to make sure the hips were in the correct position and a week later they did a CT Scan. At the 6 week mark (November 26) they will again give him a general Anesthesia to put the new cast on, but they will allow us to go home after recovery.
It has taken some adjustments and research to figure out the diaper part of this ordeal. We came home from the hospital with instructions to catheterize Devin every 4 hours and he had a ostomy bag for poop. We quickly learned that what works in the operating room does not necessarily work at home. We called on knowledge from a local couple who has 2 boys with Spina Bifida (5yrs & 1 yr) and also utilized a parent list from the Spina Bifida Association of America website. Both of these sources have been very helpful.
Here is a link to a pdf that I thought had some good information for those of you who might want to know more about the Dislocated hips:
http://www.cssd.us/documents/Parent_Guide/Orthopedics/hipdysplasia.pdf
He had the Pavlik harness on for 5 weeks. He was squirming so much that the harness was not staying in place so she put small pliable type casts on his legs, from the thigh down, for the last 3 of the 5 weeks. That still was not keeping them from rolling out, so she went to the Hip Spica but is hoping to go back to the Pavlik when the hips are more stable. I don't have all the terminology down but it sounds like the muscles on the top of his legs are more developed then those on the bottom so he tends to raise his legs up and they roll out of socket. She plans to change out the Hip Spica every 6 weeks for growth and check on the development at that time with some kind of dye test. They did the dye test when they put it on to make sure the hips were in the correct position and a week later they did a CT Scan. At the 6 week mark (November 26) they will again give him a general Anesthesia to put the new cast on, but they will allow us to go home after recovery.
It has taken some adjustments and research to figure out the diaper part of this ordeal. We came home from the hospital with instructions to catheterize Devin every 4 hours and he had a ostomy bag for poop. We quickly learned that what works in the operating room does not necessarily work at home. We called on knowledge from a local couple who has 2 boys with Spina Bifida (5yrs & 1 yr) and also utilized a parent list from the Spina Bifida Association of America website. Both of these sources have been very helpful.
Here is a link to a pdf that I thought had some good information for those of you who might want to know more about the Dislocated hips:
http://www.cssd.us/documents/Parent_Guide/Orthopedics/hipdysplasia.pdf
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