Sunday, January 23, 2011

First visit to SB Clinic

At 4 months we went to SB clinic for the first time. We love the head RN of our clinic! She is so sweet and just loves Little G. We had met her while I was pregnant and she came to visit Little G in the NICU after birth. Our first visit was pleasant and successful. We had taken Little G for a Renal u/s and a Head u/s a few weeks prior so we were getting the results that day at clinic. We were a little anxious but fairly confident in the outcomes (a mother's intuition is alwaus dead on). The renal u/s showed no reflux or backing up in the kidneys- yay! The urologist said the u/s looked really good. Great news for us but not much of a surprise. Little G pees constantly! He does dribble however and we really don't see any type of stream (only during a sneeze or cough). I suspect he has a loose sphincter but we will have to wait to find out. No problems in the poop dept. Next, we saw our neuro. Little G's ventricles are still stable and in normal limits as they have been since birth. Sigh of relief still showing no signs of needing a shunt! We will have our next head u/s when G is 7 months. Last, we saw the ortho. Perhaps the one we were most anxious to see. Little G's left foot has always drooped and recently his left hip started popping as well. This really concerned us. The ortho said he has Developemntal Hip Dysplasia. DHD can happen in any child and isn't SB related but SB complicates it since the muscles don't always work properly to hold the hip in place. Little G will need to wear a hip abbductor for the next 3-6 months for around 16 hours a day. The hip abductor basically holds his legs in a "frog" position to help form the socket the Little G is lacking. Surprisingly, Little G doesn't seem to mind wearing it. We also found out that Little G's left leg has Internal Tibia Torsion (ITT) which means in his lower leg the tibia is twisted. Again this is common in all babies- has more to do with position in the womb as does the hip dysplasia. My husband and brother both had it. This is something that should correct itself once he starts walking and/or by the age of 3. The ortho felt that the hip and ITT was what was causing his foot to droop. This was such a relief to us! All this time we had thought it was nerve damage and that nothing would help it. So we actually felt like this was a good thing when normally most parents would be devastated (but with SB everything is relative!). So all in all it was a good visit to clinic. One thing I didn't like about clinic is that you don't get to choose what dr.'s you see. You see whichever neuro, uro, and ortho that are scheduled that day. But the nice thing is you get all your dr. appt out of the way at one time in one place. Still debating whether we want to stay in clinic with random dr.'s or choose a dr. in each field to see independently. We will probably go to clinic at least a couple more times before making a decision.

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