The Odds

People keep telling us we are lucky. Lucky that we've caught Boo's hip early, lucky that it's not both hips, lucky that we've got great family and friends to support us. I'm not sure that luck is the right word. I'm certainly grateful for all of these things, but it’s not really about luck. To me, luck is finding a parking spot on a Saturday morning, right outside the shop you want to go in. Luck is going into that shop and finding the exact thing you were looking for and having time to go and grab a coffee.


DDH used to be called Congenital Dysplasia of the Hips, but someone clever has since found that some hips are normal at birth and gradually become dysplastic.

According to my research via my dear friend Google, about one in 100 hips present with some dysplasia at birth decreasing to approx one in 1000 hips by six weeks. It can happen to any baby but is predominantly associated with:

• females
• the left hip
• first born children
• babies born breech (or in breech position in the last trimester of pregnancy)
• babies with other orthopaedic problems (club foot etc.)
• a positive family history

Boo hits three out of six of those risk factors, and because of her age her only option for treatment is surgery and a cast.

 

If Lotto had those odds I'd buy a ticket every week - now winning that would be lucky!