Um, WHAT!? I just was not at all expecting that.
Not that I am shocked that hip surgery has come up, it is pretty common in kids with severe CP. I just wasn't expecting to even be thinking about it TODAY. We only came in to get casted for new braces!
We don't have to decide to do the surgery. It is possible that his hip may not eventually become dislocated and even if it does dislocate that it may not cause him pain. But if it does become dislocated (and that is what the doctor feels will eventually happen) and it is causing him pain, then it becomes much harder to fix it than it will be before it happens. So we will most likely be doing it.
The procedure is called a varus derotational osteotomy. Basically they will cut a wedge shaped piece out of his hip bone to change the angle of it so that it will stay inside the hip socket. I usually like to link to these things but I am not finding a nice simple description or illustration I like so I may keep looking and link later.
Anyway, after that we did go get him casted. First they casted his feet and legs for his AFOs. He picked out red straps with a space themed ribbon. He decided he did not want any transfer patterns on the outside of the AFOs. He was very definitive that he just wanted them to be white. Here he is being casted.
Then the fun part (read sarcastically!)...to get casted for his TLSO, he had to put on a very tight gauze body sock and then I get to balance him on that contraption you see in the background. They call it a table, but it's not a table. It's a fabric strap strung up that he balances on while his feet are up on the wooden part. It is CRAZY! This is our second time doing it so it wasn't quite as bad this time.
His other orthotist always measured him for his TLSO instead of casting him. It is less precarious to measure for sure, but it is actually quicker to do the casting and I think it fits better when it is casted too.
Here is a better look at the "table".
A funny story:
While we were in the waiting room forever before the appointment, a child life person came through with a cart of toys for the kids. I looked through it and there really wasn't anything for Jackson. The books were all coloring books which he can't really do, there were little toy cars which he already has and can't really use anyway, there were stuffed animals but they were all too large or too girly. I just do not need more crap in my house so I was about to pass but she said she had a snow globe for him back in the office that was really cool and she ran off to get it.
So she brought it back to Jackson. It is NOT a toy snow globe for kids. It is a big heavy glass and ceramic snow globe of the town of St. Charles, IL with a music box in it. I think it is pretty weird and ugly and I tried to convince Jackson that he didn't want to bring it home. But Jackson really likes it and he wanted to bring it home. So here it is on our mantle...sigh.
