Today...

Today, I am grateful for good doctors. Good doctors who take the time to double check...just in case...even when they suspect it's nothing.

As a routine part of any baby checkup, the doctor checks out the baby's hip joints.

1. Ella Grace had this check when she was born from a pediatrician before we were released from the hospital.
2. She had it again at her three day checkup by the nurse practitioner at her old pediatrician's office.
3. She had it again when she was nine days old by the pediatric endocrinologist.

Three times I was told her hips looked and sounded great.

At her two week checkup (which was her first visit to her new pediatrician), the doctor said she thought she heard a slight click, but that we'd check on it again in two weeks.
At her one month checkup, this sweet doctor said she still heard that slight click. Though she doubted there was a problem, she couldn't be entirely sure, and so she would be referring Ella Grace to a radiologist for an ultrasound of her hips. "Just to make sure. Just so we don't have to worry" she said with a smile.

Today she got her ultrasound. There is a slight problem. She was born with what is called a "dislocatable hip"...not "dislocated" but it could be if we don't fix it. It usually happens with babies who are born breech, but she was not. The radiologist said we will likely be referred to an orthopedist, that Ella Grace will probably need to wear a harness, and that we'd get another ultrasound for her in 6-8 weeks. The harness looks pretty intense. But, according to a friend of mine who is in his last year of radiology residency (who was actually in the examination room with the doctor and I) said enthusiastically to me this evening "the harness works."

Today I am grateful for good doctors.

And on a lighter note, today I am grateful for this article.