The Orthopaedist, the second visit

if you're an expert, you're welcome to analyze
this X-ray and tell me what you think in
the comments below!!

We visited the Orthopaedist this week.  It wasn't really that exciting of a visit, I kind of knew what to expect before we got there.  But I feel that it's important that we go so Sadie's hips can be X-rayed and her (lack of) progress followed.

The first thing we did was go to X-rays.  I probably should have mentioned on the way there that I'm pregnant (although, to me it's obvious), but I didn't.  So, when the guy took us in there, it was only him and I couldn't be in there to hold Sadie still.  He called someone to come help, but she was taking a long time.  Luckily, Sadie was being a good girl, and he was able to position her legs straight and then run and push the button and she stayed there!  I was so proud of her.

We've only seen Dr. Segal once, last August.  He told us then that he recommended snipping her adductors (tendons inside the thighs) so increase mobility.  We told him we'd like to wait and see before we jump to drastic measures like surgery and he said that was fine.  However, we were supposed to go back and see him in October, but we didn't make it.

So, this week when we saw him he looked at her hips again and said the left one (which was the bad one) looks the same, while the right one has gotten worse.  And again he recommended snipping adductors.  However, at this time we are in the process of getting a stander, which means Sadie will start bearing weight on those hips on a regular basis, which is part of the problem, since she doesn't walk, those joints aren't developing like they normally would.  So, this should drive the head of that hip joint further into the socket and stabilize it more and more.  The problem is that that head is about 50% uncovered and if it gets any worse it could drive out of the socket and cause it to pop out, therefore making the problem worse instead of helping it.

I told Dr. Segal that we're not ready yet to consider surgery of snipping the adductors, but that we'd like to continue what we're doing with the stretching and the physical therapy and add standing into the routine.  He agreed that we could wait.  He told me that it's not his job to tell me what to do, but to advise me, and if he thought I was making a bad decision, he'd tell me.  And he doesn't think this is a bad decision.  He also told me that he agrees to try everything possible BEFORE surgery because then I'll know that I did everything I could to avoid it.  But he made it sound like it's inevitable and I'm just delaying what's going to eventually have to happen.

So the other thing is that Dr. Segal told me that snipping the adductors doesn't guarantee fixing the problem.  In fact, when I asked him if this problem can be reversed at all, or if we can just working to maintain at this point, he told me that he's never seen it get better, just slow down the getting worse.  So, I know that big hip surgery is in our future...just how long can we hold it off?  Neither Tami nor Denise (physical therapists) feel like anything needs drastic measures now.  And I think we're (Tami, Denise, and us) all in agreement that as long as Sadie's mobility isn't impaired, and as long as she's not in pain, we don't need surgery.

Has your child had his/her adductors snipped?  Did it help?  Were you glad you did it?  Was it a big decision for you or was it a no-brainer?