Baby Girl Has A New Fashion Accessory | Hip Dysplasia and the Pavlik Harness

Chayse wearing the Pavlik Harness (10 1/2 weeks old)

As you can see from the photo, baby girl has a new fashion accessory! 🙂 For those of you that we don’t get to talk with very often, I thought I’d do a quick blog post about that fun new accessory. That way when pictures start showing up on Instagram and Facebook, you all aren’t wondering what in the world happened to her.

Because Chayse was breech, her pediatrician recommended that at one month we do an ultrasound to double check that her hips are forming properly. (Hip dysplasia is more common in babies who are breech because of how they are sitting and growing in the womb). At that time (and at birth) her hips were not dislocating, popping, clicking, etc. (all the usual signs of hip dysplasia) but if there is an issue, it’s MUCH easier to fix at this age than later on when she’s older. That’s why they like to do the ultrasound just to be sure.

I took Chayse in on August 8th to the East Children’s Hospital location in Monroeville and at the end of the appointment was told that if we needed to do anything, we would hear from our pediatrician. We never heard anything, so we figured no news is good news. 

Then, on September 12th, I took Chayse in for her 2 month check up. At the end of the appointment they asked if I had any questions, I said no and the PA was actually half way out the door when I remembered the ultrasound. I quickly asked, “Oh yeah, her hips? That all checked out ok, right?” To which the PA looked in the chart and then excused herself to go look into it. Apparently they hadn’t even received the results yet?!? So glad I thought to ask or we probably never would have gotten the results!

The PA (Physicians Assistant) came back into the room, told me they didn’t have the results yet and that they were on the phone with the Radiology department and would call me with the results, good or bad, but the end of the day. Well, later that day I got a call from the doctor and he left a message saying he would call me on the other number he had for us. I immediately figured something must have shown up on the ultrasound otherwise he would have just left a message saying everything looked great. 

The other number is Broc’s number and so he spent a few minutes on the phone with the doctor and we learned that Chayse’s hip joints are shallow. Not a major issue right now, but could be a big issue as she starts walking, etc. So, another appointment was scheduled for her but this time with an Orthopedic Specialist at the Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh.

We took Chayse to that appointment this last Monday, September 22nd, and after hearing that it had been five weeks since the last ultrasound, the Nurse Practitioner (NP) immediately requested another ultrasound be done. A lot can change in a growing baby in that amount of time. (Of course, we had called in the week before to see if that would be beneficial, but never got a call back…) Thankfully, since we don’t live in Pittsburgh, they were able to move some things around and they got us right over for an ultrasound and the NP waited over in Ortho for us and the results. 

Quick picture before we went in for the appointment. I wanted one last picture of her this age/size and not wearing the harness.

She could probably tell that at this point I wasn’t too thrilled with the Children’s staff and their follow up capabilities since they can’t seem to send results over in a timely manner or even return phone calls. I will say though, that while everything leading up to this appointment was ridiculously handled and very frustrating, they were fantastic at the actual hospital and did everything they could to make sure similar things didn’t happen again. And for that I am very thankful! I would have been really upset had they told us we had to come back another day for another ultrasound and follow-up, especially since I had called in twice and left messages trying to set up an ultrasound in advance in an attempt prevent that issue and be proactive on our end.  

Getting the second ultrasound. During her first ultrasound they had us bring her hungry and then feed her a bottle so she would be occupied. This time around, we didn’t have a bottle but luckily her fingers kept her occupied. 😉

Any way…after the ultrasound, we walked back over to Ortho and there was the NP with a Pavlik Harness in her hand. SHOOT! I was hoping and praying they would say the ultrasound looked awesome and there was no need for the harness. 

Turns out, her left hip looked perfect but her right hip was still shallow. Not wanting to take any chances, the NP recommended that we do treat her. I mean, the hip could fix itself on it’s own given more time, but it could also not do that. So better safe than sorry. I think the actual statistic is that 98-99% off cases similar to Chayse’s resolve on their own, but you never know if you’ll be that 1%. And if you can fix something, why not fix it?! 

The treatment for hip dysplasia like Chayse’s is wearing the Pavlik Harness at least 22 hours a day for 4 weeks. Then we will do another ultrasound and see if more time is needed. After the first 4 weeks, what will probably happen is she will go to just wearing the harness for another 4 weeks but only part-time instead of full-time. (Or there is a teeny tiny chance they will say she can be done completely with the harness…which is what I’m hoping for). 🙂

Once the NP went over the treatment with us, we were shown how to fit Chayse into the harness and then we were done with the appointment. Truthfully, we were both surprised how much she can still move in it and while she did get upset when it was being put on, I think that was more from being tired and having lots of people moving her around and examining her all day than from the harness itself.

Amazing church we passed driving to and from the hospital. I seriously could admire the architecture here in PA for days! So much history!

Our appointment got out right during rush hour, so we passed some time at Trader Joe’s and Panera Bread and then made the drive back to pick up Titan from our friends…and Chayse slept through pretty much all of it! 🙂

Well, that’s it for this novel of a post. Next week I’ll try to do a follow up post with how she’s doing, anything we’ve had to change since she’s started wearing it, etc. More of a “Day in the life…” type post.