And What Was Life Like Without a Spica This Time Around??

*Play song, "You Make Me Smile" for this post

In a phrase..... SOoooooo much better!!! So much so, that I'm really glad we didn't know about this option the first time around, since I'm sure I would have put up a stink that we had to have the spica! 

So, we finally had our follow-up post surgery last Tuesday. Of course for the past couple of weeks in Utah we've had temps in the 50's and even 60's sometimes, and just our luck the day it finally started to snow was the day of our appointment! Luckily we didn't have to go all the way to Primary, just to Riverton, and conditions for driving were really not that bad.

We got back into x-ray the moment we checked in, and they only needed one, which is always a good sign! Then it was time to wait for Dr. Stotts, and when he came in, he stated that he had some good news.... but of course if there's good news, there's usually bad news with it. And sure enough, this is what he said, "The good news is, her hips look great!..... The bad news, is that I'm pretty concerned about her feet again." *heart sinks..... breath catches..... He means another surgery, right? I should learn to eat my words! Anytime I say we're done with surgeries, they have to add another.... so lesson learned, I will not be saying that anymore! He didn't think he wanted to do anything immediately.... in fact his words were, "Let's make sure her hips won't surprise us again before we think about anything else!".... man does he know my girl!

But like I said....

This

Is way, way, way better than

This

The one part we really hated with having the wedge, was

This

Yes this... using all the seatbelts in the back seat.... having to pull them taught and hold it on the one end while trying to loop it completely through all the right spots.... killer on the back (I cried of back pain almost every night I put her in and out of the car!), and never did it take less than 25 minutes! So, I guess this was the diaper change this time (that was the killer with the spica).

Almost made me miss this bad boy!

(her special spica car seat)

So we were a "go ahead" for weaning of the good ole wedge. Slowly, not all at once, and that was ok with us, since it really has been so good to us! Thanks for not being a "spica" wedge.... we really, really, really appreciate that! Kinda funny what you learn to appreciate when you've seen things we have in these past four years! 

It's been a long journey on these poor hips! And I sure hope for my amazing girl's sake that we are complete..... never mind, biting my tongue here! 

I know we have video of her in the Pavlik harness (what she wore when they first discovered her hip displaysia), but since I can't seem to find a picture, you can see what that looks like here. She had to wear this for only about a month, because x-rays showed that it wasn't enough to help....

So, when that didn't work, it was then the brace

Tiny little thing, probably about 7 pounds at 5 1/2 months! She had to wear this about 23 hours a day, for about 4 months.

Then of course her extensive leg casting (which when we started this, Dr. Stotts thought it would be cruel for her to have to wear the brace too! Especially since the weight of the casts would be pretty good at holding her hips in the right position). 

She wore these off and on the next 4 months (with weekly cast changes at Primary) until her foot surgery in September of 2008. X-rays after her foot surgery follow-up showed that her hips were in the socket where they wanted, and her doctor didn't think we'd need to worry about it anymore. But a little over a year later is when her PT and I noticed a discrepancy between her legs (like almost an inch difference!).... which since I know she wasn't born with that, it was coming from one of two options, her hips or her spine. Hips was more likely and of course the better fix! It took a lot of convincing on my part for them to even bring her in to check, they basically were just humoring me! But low and behold, I was right....

So that was when she needed the surgery in 2010

To now :)

But now matter what life throws our way.....

 we must always remember to...

Took this picture as a project in our photo class, using shutter speed.... if you haven't seen it already (it is all over facebook, been quite amazing to see actually)