Harriet has DDH...

... or Development Dysplasia of the Hip. It’s normally picked up at birth or within the first few weeks, but for reasons unknown it wasn’t spotted until her nine-month check. Basically her left hip is loose, and can apparently be dislocated. She’s never shown any pain from that side, but it might explain why she occasionally appears to get her legs in a muddle. Anyway, she was x-rayed on Friday and we were relayed the news that they want her to go to a top London hospital for treatment.

Obviously it was a massive shock and we've been through the mill on worst-case scenarios, but we’re over that now and we realise that hopefully they’ve caught it in time before she starts walking. The treatment should – unless we’re told differently (after the bolt from the blue on Friday when we’d convinced ourselves – helped by the doctor’s reassuring words – that it was only a minor problem) – involve her being in plaster for a certain period of time (certainly weeks and months, but how many we don’t know - seems to be between 8-16 weeks). They may also do some muscle manipulation or something.

Apparently the prognosis is good – once done, she should have no more problems. From the sounds of things it’s not as major a problem as it can be, which might explain why it wasn’t picked up earlier. We’ve now got to wait for an appointment in London, then I guess we’ll be shuttling back and forth for treatment. Obviously it’s going to be a major inconvenience for Harriet – I’m guessing they normally have fewer problems with younger babies who aren’t mobile, so she may well be very frustrated – and we’ll have to develop a whole new routine for nappy changing, sleeping, travelling, etc. Of course, while the prognosis should be good, after the shock of realising it wasn’t a very minor/borderline thing they’d picked up, we’re not taking anything for granted! I'd broken a golden rule in particular by assuming everything would be okay after it was initially spotted by the health visitor.

So it’ll be an anxious wait for the letter telling us when we have to go to London, and then the whole treatment, etc. In the meantime, Harri has shaken off a cold and cough and is as happy as Larry.

Of course, it puts everything else into perspective - not least of which is the fact the roof appears to be leaking again...