Ainsley's Hips Are In Place

She hates the x-rays.

...But always has so much fun playing with the mirror. This time she even "talked" to herself.

Friday we had an appointment with a very friendly orthopedic doc. Not with Dr. Song, the ortho surgeon, because he's out of the office and booked up for weeks following his return. The reason for the appointment is that Ainsley is still having issues with her right hip. The side that had the open reduction. We've been very concerned because it is taking so much longer to regain normal movement in that leg now that she's out of the brace during the days. And the leg looks about an inch longer. Obviously that had us concerned. They took an x-ray but had to redo it because it wasn't clear (Mostly because she can't straighten that darn leg.) so they had to do another. This was one time where a delay was convenient because Steve had to leave the appointment to pick up Adrian from preschool. He'd had a meltdown about being assigned to a group without any of his friends for a field trip. Steve was still able to get back to the hospital in time to hear what the doctor had to say while we were getting the second x-ray. So with her legs in a frog like position they were able to see that it looks like both hips are still in the sockets. Which is GREAT news especially given the asymmetry we're seeing. I did notice a difference in the bone compared with the presurgery x-rays. I hope we don't find there is a bone regrowth issue. He's going to review the x-ray with our regular doc and get back to us. Hopefully Dr. Song will agree with the ortho doc. Perhaps we might even be able to stop using the brace during sleeping earlier than expected.

Then Monday we had a special visit from a very experienced PT from Boyer. She worked with Ainsley for an hour and concluded by the end of the visit that her hamstring is okay and that the problem seems to be the hip abductor muscle. So she's going to instruct our regular PT how best to stretch it out. She is hopeful that once the muscle is relaxed that her legs will even out in length. And perhaps weight bearing in the future may help shape the hip socket.

So it's going to take some work but it's looking as if it's not a serious problem. We're so relieved that the hip isn't badly out of place which could have required another surgery down the road.