What to expect in the first few weeks after hip spica removal

The start of this week marked Harper’s 2 weekhip spica removal.  In just two weeks Harper’s physical development has come in leaps and bounds.  It’s not all been plain sailing though.  A little background first of all.  Before Harper had her hips spica on she was able to sit, crawl and pull to stand.  You can read more about Harper’s initial spica journey here.

Initial Problems post hip spica

As expected Harper’s legs and tendons were all pretty stiff after being encased in hip spica for almost 4 months.  Harper immediately after removal was pretty cranky about moving her legs. Within 2 hours my happy smily Harper was fully back and she was happy to kick her legs about.  She was particularly happy to be able to touch her legs, she wasn’t even bothered by other people touching them.  I decided to give Harper a dose of regular paracetamol for the first day out of her cast.  This helped with the initial aches and pains of getting all her joints and tendons moving again.  Regular warm baths also helped to make her joints feel soothed and supported.

Skin Issues

As previously mentioned Harper was happy to have her skin touched, but her skin didn’t feel the same way!  The day after removal Harper came up in an allergic rash ALL over her body where the cast had previously been.  The rash was mild on the stomach area but her legs were red raw.  Harper was scratching it so much that I knew it must be itchy.  We had to keep her legs fully covered to ensure she didn’t scratch herself to the point of bleeding.  Out came the faithful bottle of Piriton for children!  This helped enormously with the itching and kept her calm.  Looking back I don’t think dressing her in shorts was such a good idea – despite how cute she looked!

It took almost the whole 2 weeks for the rash to disappear.  I failed to realise just how sensitive her skin would be after her treatment and hadn’t even considered this to be a problem.

Physical Issues – Sitting

I’m. It sure why but I had this strange idea that after the cast was removed Harper would at least be able to sit unaided.  Harper had lost a lot of muscle tone from her stomach and back and wasn’t able to sit very well at all.

A breastfeeding cushion tucked up behind Harper kept her propped up but even then her balance still wasn’t very good.  It took a good three days for Harper’s core muscle tone to return.  Once that happened though she was able to sit well unaided.  This meant Harper could start work on learning how to crawl again.

Crawling

Harper had no problems crawling in a hip spica so I expected again (incorrectly) that she’d be able to crawl straight away.  Once Harper had learned to sit unaided I would say it took another 2 days to lean how to crawl again.  Her preferred method of crawling though is still commando crawling with that all familiar frog leg position that she was in for so long.

Prior to the hip spica cast Harper was able to crawl on her hands and knees.  I wonder if she will ever re-learn crawling on her hands and knees at all.  Even if she doesn’t though it’s not a massive problem, as hopefully she will soon be moving on to….

Standing

Before cast removal Harper was already pulling to stand.  Her technique was a little on the floppy side though.  After a week of cast removal Harper has started to pull to stand again.

At the 2 week point Harper can easily pull to stand on almost any surface and has even started crusing the furniture.  Then earlier today she took her first ever steps using her V-Tech First Steps baby walker!

Looking Foward

I had no idea that Harper  would progress so quickly.  As a Mum I’m thrilled and so proud that she’s pushed through all the discomfort.  I cant wait to see how she will be doing in the next 2 weeks time.  Let’s just hope that all the weight she’s now bearing on her hips means that she’s going to carve out some nice deep hip sockets to avoid any further surgery!