A Decision to be Happy

Part 2 of Our DDH Journey

In this post, I have described a sensitive personal experience and emotional ups and downs we experienced when my son was diagnosed with DDH.

We thank all the doctors and express our gratitude toward the creator for helping us toward a full recovery through a prompt detection and initiation of appropriate treatment. We thank them for all the support and strength they gave us.

What was happening to us was completely unheard of - not just to us but to everyone we spoke to. And what is unknown is kind of SCARY!

DDH is extremely rare in Indians. It's occurrence is more likely in babies born in breech position, in girls and in those with family history.... none of which was applicable to our son. The only factor that was relevant, was our son being our first born child - apparently the uterus could not stretch to make enough room for fuller hip joint growth. Statistically our son stood minuscule probability of something like this happening. Then why did it happen to our son?

A feeling of being betrayed had already started creeping in. We arrived home with our lovely baby; my mother welcomed us with traditional custom of washing feet with milk. It was all supposed to be so special. We were supposed to be happy. But we were not..... we were miserable! We cried and we were scared.... most of all we were hurt.... things were supposed to be different.... things were supposed to be perfect! We wanted the DDH to be undone... somehow!

We were in pure denial. (Blinded by the DDH, we could not acknowledge that it indeed was a time to celebrate!)

I was exhausted from the whole childbirth experience and more from the emotional turmoil that we experienced in the past two days. Yet I did not want to sleep that night and the next... hoping that I could think and pray the whole time, wishing the DDH away.

Day 4, we had to take our son out for the specialized ultrasound to the other end of the city. Poor little baby!! He was supposed to be in the cozy nest and warm care of his family. (I also started self-pitying..... it was against the customary period of 1.25 months when the new mother and baby do not venture outside the house and receive specialized care and treatment, all that we had to forsake). The report showed a mild DDH in right hip and a significant DDH in the left one.

Day 5 the Pavlik harness arrives. It started making us less pathetic. We felt that things have started to move along. That evening we met the Ped Ortho again and got the harness applied. It did feel cruel to tie up a 4 day old baby in velcro straps. He resisted like any other child, he cried and screamed, but we had to! :( My better self had started taking over already, so it was easier to accept the situation (although I hated it from the bottom of my heart) and to focus on soothing our baby.

That evening, before we saw the doctor for harness application, we made a conscious decision to change our perspective. We forced ourselves to sideline the DDH and focus on the more important... the more precious... the arrival of our son. We decided to celebrate and not letting each other feel miserable anymore.

Read on for more on Our DDH Journey: Click here Part 3
Please share your experience with DDH. I would also be happy to respond to any of your queries.