The Beginning

Elsie was born on Monday 10/10/2011.  Instantly I was in love.  Elsie was the perfect addition to our family.  The first hour after her birth she was on me and I gawked over her, starring at her beautiful face.  After the initial hour she left my side to be cleaned, measured, weighed and evaluated.  That's when the midwife noticed the difference in her leg lengths.  Neither my husband nor I had noticed this.  The nurse brought it to our attention as we had family visiting.  This was awkward since we were shocked and didn't know what to think, but also had family in the room so we wanted to keep up the positivity.


We almost had to put the leg difference on hold in our minds for the first few hours because we had many family members visiting.  Eventually we had the pediatrician visit (as he would with any newborn).  After he looked at Elsie, he told us that he was going to order her an xray and that we'd be seeing an orthopedic specialist to discuss her leg prior to discharge.


We had the xray done in the room and at this point we didn't have any idea what the leg being shorter meant.  On Tuesday evening, 10/11/11, we meet with a resident orthopedic doctor.  He said that he works with the doctor we would eventually be seeing.  He examined Elsie and looked at her xrays.  Also, he discussed these items with Dr. Nowicki (our Orthopedic Dr).  After talking with Dr. Nowicki, the resident said that the limb difference could be one of 3 things:  1) hip dysplacia; 2) femur fracture; 3) Proximal Femoral Focal Deficiency (PFFD)  Of course, we didn't know what any of this meant.  The resident explained each in a nutshell.  After he left we were hoping it was just a fracture, so it would eventually heal.  We were hopeful this was the cause because there was obvious discomfort when her left leg was moved.  After doing internet searches, we were really praying it wasn't PFFD.  We would find out more the next day when we met Dr. Nowicki.


On Wednesday, 10/12/2011, we met Dr. Nowicki.  He is a pediatric orthopedic specialist in the Kalamazoo area, working at the Kalamazoo Center for Medical Studies.  Immediately upon visiting, Dr. Nowicki examined Elsie.  He didn't have much hesitation in saying the she for sure had PFFD.  It was evident because of 1) the xray and 2) the skin on her thigh wasn't saggy or baggy.  It was normal, so that eliminated the fracture (if there were loose skin, that would have signified that there is supposed to be a longer leg there. 


Unfortunately, Matt and I were crushed.  We didn't want this perfect little girl to face any set backs in her whole entire life, let alone start off with one.  This was a shock.   We were of course overwhelmed at this point.  Not only is labor and delivery a long, tiring process, but we had this bomb dropped on us.  I just wanted to hold little Els and think of a way to take care of her.