The Beginning of the Adventure

It all started at Mackenzie's 6 month check up on March 26th with our family doctor.  Everything was going great until we got to the end of the appointment when the doctor noticed a "click" in Mackenzie's left hip.  Her hips had been checked, as is routine, when she was born as well as at her 6 week and 3 month appointments and nothing out of the ordinary was noticed.  Our doctor wanted to send us for an x-ray to have it checked out to see what was going on.

We went first thing in the morning the very next day to the Diagnostic Imaging Centre as x-rays were done on a first come first serve basis.  Then we just had to wait a few days for the results to be sent to our doctor.  We got a phone call from our doctor a couple days later telling us that they did indeed notice an abnormality on the x-ray and they were sending us to a pediatric orthopedic surgeon in the city.  We had a choice of either Edmonton or Calgary since we live in between the two cities.  It didn't matter to us we just wanted to get in as quickly as we could.  We had an appointment for the Stollery Children's Hospital in Edmonton for April 10th, so fortunately did not have to wait too long to see someone.

While we waited we did a bunch of research online, as well as talked with a colleague of ours whose daughter also had hip dysplasia as a baby.  We had no idea what the issue really was or how severe it might be so we didn't know at all what to expect.   I had been regularly taking Mackenzie to see a chiropractor and she was able to access the x-rays and took some time to go over them with me and explain what they meant.  She said things were not good and Mackenzie's left hip did not have the ball of her femur that should sit in her hip socket developed.  Also that the angle of the left hip was not correct as you can see in the images below compared to the right.  She told us to be prepared for her to be put in a brace or even potentially a cast when we went to see the specialist.

When we saw the specialist in Edmonton they took another x-ray.  First a resident doctor came into the room and examined Mackenzie he said that he didn't seem to feel any problems and it didn't seem bad.  That there maybe was a little bit of a click and that the specialist would have a look at it.  

When the Doctor came in he said "That's not a normal hip, it's not dislocating, but it's not a normal hip".  That was about as much of an explanation we got from him.  He hummed and hawed a bit between whether she should have a Pavlik Harness or a brace and decided on the brace since she was on the old-ish side for the Pavlik.  We were sent to the Rehab clinic to see an Occupational Therapist and told she needed to wear the brace 24/7 except for diaper changes and baths for 8 weeks and then we would reassess.