When the News is Not Good...

We just found out today that Kira will need hip surgery on both hips. Both of her hips are completely dislocated. The term, I believe, is dysplasia. This is usually an issue that the child is born with and usually noticed early. However, the fact that both hips are behaving the same made it difficult to be diagnosed by a non-specialist. We chose to take her to an orthopaedic specialist because she "walks funny" and certain people (Grandmas...) felt that it was of concern. Mom felt that it was just no big deal and she would grow out of it. Mom was WRONG and now feels horribl guilty about the several months of procrastination that may have caused this to be more difficult than it should have.

Processing this new information is quite difficult at the moment. I doubt I'm the best qualified for giving any advice on how to deal with things when the news is not good.

So, what am I doing now?

1) Research - I'm reading what I can about this problem and its causes and treatments. I'm trying to figure out as much as possible about what type of cast will be required and what type of mobility issues will be presented to us.

2) Support - I'm rallying my support base to help me through this. My "Grandmas," my friends, my husband - I recognize how incredibly valuable they will be to me and Kira while we struggle through months of virtual immobility due to a body cast and months of maternal insanity due to that same body cast.

3) Putting on the smile - I have to get past my pity party now so that I can be strong for Kira later.

4) Making a list - Of course the doctor was kind enough to ask us if there were any questions immediately after he informed us of what needed to be done. Unfortunately, due to the traumatic shock that my brain had just endured, there were few questions that came to mind. (Can I be in the OR with her? --- um NO! / How long will the surgery take? --- An eternity for you the parents. Three hours for me the doctor. / How long will we have to be at the hospital? --- 24 hours. )

Now that I'm a bit more calm, I'm making a more thorough list of questions that I need to ask. Why is it that they always ask us if we have questions when we are paralyzed and unable to think clearly enough to form any of those questions?

5) Scheduling - I don't know when the surgery is just yet, but I know there will be many things that need to be dealt with before and after that day. I'm already starting to work out my system of how to deal with all this.

**Please note: There may be a bit of extra "filler" filling my pages in the next few days. Or there may be nothing at all, depending on how quickly this all comes together. I'm hoping for the soonest date because that gives me far less time to stress over the inevitable.**