This surgery resulted because of Kaya's hip dispacia, a condition where the hip joint doesn't wrap completely around the ball of the femur. The extra wear and tear that this creates makes a future hip replacement innevitable. For Kaya, that would have occured in her late twenties had we not done this surgery.
So, as with every surgery, we prepared Kaya by bringing her doll Emily with her, so she could have the same "surgery". The doctors raised their eyebrows when we requested them to put a cast on Kaya's doll, but they did it.
The first cast soon became a nightmare. With Kaya's vesicostomy and feeding tube, they had to be very creative with the cast around her abdomen. With the cast originally around on two legs, the urine from her vesicostomy soon began eating away her skin. It was terrible...probably the worst skin break-down we've ever had. Only 1.5 days after the cast, we decided to take the cast off the right leg and leave it on the left. We are very glad because the bar between the legs was removed and Kaya's mobility increased substantially.
Still, we had to adjust everyday activities; eating and bathing were the biggest changes for Kaya.
At first Kaya's movement was pretty much nothing. She always wanted to be carried. And talk about HEAVY. 
We have no idea what a regular 4 yr old feels like. The extra 10 lbs was a workout!!! (Or I'm just getting soft).
All in all, we're glad it's off...although it was fun to carry her by the cast and twirl her around in circles on the new wood floors. 
So far, so good though. Her leg is a little tender, so walking is still a little slow. But for the most part, she's doing good.
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