Both of our children had appointments at the Consultatiebureau last week.
Lucas is now 4.5 months young, weighed in at 7530 g and measured 65 cm in length. By way of comparison, at the same age, Eloïse was nearly 1400 g lighter and a couple of centimetres shorter. Yes, Lucas is a strapping lad.
Eloïse has reached the ripe old age of 3 years and 3 months old, weighs 15.5 kg and measures 97 cm. She’ll soon shoot through the one metre barrier.
Not so nice was when the doctor diagnosed suspected abductiebeperking or, in English, abductive limitation of the hip in Lucas. She wasn’t able to spread Lucas’s legs as much as she felt she should be able to.
Six days of putting the matter out of our mind ensued, as we tried not to think about the possibility that Lucas might have hip dysplasia (heupdysplasie). The orthopaedic department of the VUmc holds its weekly surgery on Wednesday mornings and Lucas’s suspected condition was diagnosed last Thursday, so there was nothing we could do, but wait.
So, off we went on the bakfiets yesterday morning, to have our jolly, permanently smiling little man checked out.
We first saw a very pleasant young doctor on one side of the Boelelaan, who, after prodding and exercising Lucas’s hips, could find nothing wrong with him. It’s standard procedure to perform an ultrasound, though, so we left the building, crossed the Boelelaan and headed to the second floor.
There, we were reunited with all of the parents who had gone before us on the other side of the road. Happily, it didn’t take very long before we were seen. By this time, Lucas was very tired and quite vocal in his sadness about not being allowed to doze off.
His ordeal didn’t last long, however, and, much to our relief, no abnormality was found. His hips were given a clean bill of health.
This was one time I didn’t mind having been sent somewhere for nothing. The health of one’s children is an indescribably precious thing, but usually one taken for granted. It’s not until one sees other children emerging from the doctor’s office, their father carrying a cumbersome hip brace, that one remembers how lucky one is to have ferociously healthy, irrepressible children.
Consider me reminded.