What's new
Fantasy Football - Footballguys Forums

Welcome to Our Forums. Once you've registered and logged in, you're primed to talk football, among other topics, with the sharpest and most experienced fantasy players on the internet.

Daughter scheduled for back surgery - one year checkup (1 Viewer)

She went into the OR at 7:00 and the surgery started at around 8 ( they had to position her, etc.). They expect it to be done at around 2 this afternoon... gonna be a long day.

 
My daughter is remarkable.

We arrived at the hospital this morning at 5:30 and then she went to the OR at 7:00. There is about 1 hour prep-time (positioning her for surgery, getting baseline information (blood pressure, heart rate, etc.)). They also had to setup the tests for her nervous system. They attached "pins" to her head and at various points on her body then they take baseline measurements to determine how long it takes for messages to get from point A to point B. So they can trigger messages in the brain to wiggle a finger (or whatever) before the surgery and then during the surgery to ensure the communication stays the same. They can also trigger touch feelings (or whatever) and measure the time from that point to the brain. ####### amazing technology. They continue to do this throughout the surgery to ensure nothing goes wrong and if so they will know immediately and can deal with it.

They provided updates every 1.5 hours and everything went exactly as planned. They added 28 screws (14 on each side of the spine (2 per vertebrae)) and 2 rods (1 on each side of the spine)... no final percentage for her new curvature was given at this time, but they were really pleased with the amount of the correction they were able to make.

The surgery was completed at about 2:30 and we spoke with the surgeon at around 3:00 and the first sentence was "everything went beautifully" :clap: What a relief that was!

When we finally got to see her in the recovery room the 3 nurses immediately said she is the sweetest patient they've had in a long time... She was still very groggy from the anastasia at that point but had no complaints, said "no" to the question "are you in pain" and gave them a thumbs up when they asked other questions, etc.

Later she was moved to the ICU where she and my wife will stay overnight and then she'll be transferred to a regular room for the remainder of her stay (If all goes well she will be leaving Friday or Saturday). They were very thorough in telling us what to expect after the surgery and the one thing my daughter didn't like is all the IVs that she would need right after surgery (she hates neddles, but who doesn't?). They have 1 in her left hand and 2 in her right wrist/hand area. The right hand is bent forward and immobilized because one of the IVs is an "arterial line" and this monitors her blood pressure at all times and can be used administer drugs immediately. Anyway, she is still very groggy and holds up the right hand and says, just above a whisper, "I can't use the remote control on the TV like this". :lol: She also told me that she will beat me at Mario kart Wii on Saturday when we get home (we've been playing pretty much every day for the last several months)... so she's looking forward to going home to kick my ### at Wii.

Tomorrow I will take my other daughter to school in the morning and then head back to the hospital. If everything goes well, she will situp on the side of the bed to start getting reaquanted with her new body configuration... patients can feel dizzy and off balance until they adjust to their new bodies.

Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes everyone! I'll keep updating this post when i can.
 
What an amazing young girl. I am sure you are so sad that she has to go through this, but also incredibly proud at how strong and resilient she is. What a truly wonderful spirit she has.

 
Faaaaantastic!

It's amazing how fast the recovery can go these days. Here's hoping her surgery improves those Mario Kart skills.

 
Good luck to you and your family, and your little girl. As a dad of two girls, my heart aches for you. Sending good thoughts.

 
Another good day! She is still very groggy and sleepy from the medication which is normal for this surgery at this point in the recovery. She was able to sit on the edge of the bed for several minutes today which was really the only goal for today. Two physical therapy nurses helped her transition from laying to sitting with instructions on how to keep her spine straight - which is critical to ensure the screws don't come lose.

She also started eating today but starting slowly - ice chips, juice, gold fish, etc. The next step is to transition the pain medication from IV to pills and having food in her stomach is part of that transition so her stomach isn't upset.

Tomorrow she will stand for a while and possibly walk to and sit in a chair.

 
Yet another good day. She was able to walk a few steps and sat in a chair for about 30 minutes today! Other than that she pretty much slept all day - that was a lot of effort for her given the surgery, medication, etc. She is still a little bit nauseous but that is to be expected given all the anesthesia, pain meds, etc. She has hit every milestone so far but tomorrow is the biggest day yet. She will move around more frequently and many of the tubes, catheter, etc. will be removed. She was measured for a brace today and it will be delivered/fitted tomorrow. The main thing now and for the next 6 weeks is to prevent her from twisting, bending, whatever that will put undo pressure on the spine and the brace is designed to help do that.

Her spirit/will/determination is awesome to see. She is really independent and likes to do things on her own. When it was time to sit on the edge of the bed today, then stand, then take a few steps, then sit in the chair she gave 100% effort. The PT nurse was impressed with her ability to do most of the work on her own - the nurse was basically there to ensure her spine stayed straight and helped with balance. She is eager to do whatever she is asked to do because it will help her get better faster.

I hope tomorrow continues to go as well as these first few days have gone.

 
Oh, I forgot to mention that she is WAY taller that she was before the surgery! She was 5'5" before the surgery but was almost looking by wife in the eyes when she was standing today - my wife is 5'8". They expect her to be about 5'7" but we won't know for sure for a few weeks - to give her body a chance to adjust to the changes. Anyway, it was really cool to see her with such great posture and so tall!

 
bigbottom said:
What an amazing young girl. I am sure you are so sad that she has to go through this, but also incredibly proud at how strong and resilient she is. What a truly wonderful spirit she has.
Click to expand...
You pretty much nailed it. I hate seeing her suffer so much through the recovery process and the fact that she has to deal with this at all. But I try not to dwell on those felling and instead try to follow her lead. She is just so positive, strong, and determined to get through this with a good attitude that I would feel somehow that I let her down if I focused on the negative aspect of it. Watching your kid go through this SUCKS, but if I'm just watching all this I shouldn't have a worse attitude than she does since she is actually going through it. It's hard, but I try to stay positive and focused on the progress she is making to keep her spirits up, but in a weird way she is doing that for me.

 
Just caught back up on your daughter's progress. Fantastic news! Hope her recovery stays on the track it's been on. My wife is back to normal after her 2nd spinal tumor removal a month or so ago...while not nearly as serious as your daughter's issues in terms of recovery.

But again, glad to hear the good news. :thumbup:

 
Steeler said:
Oh, I forgot to mention that she is WAY taller that she was before the surgery! She was 5'5" before the surgery but was almost looking by wife in the eyes when she was standing today - my wife is 5'8". They expect her to be about 5'7" but we won't know for sure for a few weeks - to give her body a chance to adjust to the changes. Anyway, it was really cool to see her with such great posture and so tall!
Click to expand...
Great to hear all the good news.

They always told me that arm span is a good analog for height post surgery. You would at least end up as tall as your arms stretch out, basically. That would put me at 6 foot vs 5-10.

There is a lot of PT needed post surgery to help the body compensate. Not knowing the specifics, and your surgery sounds really intense here, PT can take a year or more. There can be some atrophy and weight loss as well. The body used to have muscles in some places to compensate for the imbalance it will no longer need and muscles that you do need to stand up aren't developed.

It will all come together. Keep us updated.

 
She had a rough night getting sick a couple times and one IV came out. She is still sleepy but they say anesthesia and the mediation affects people differently so the isn't unusual. She will be moving a lot more today, walking, sitting longer, etc. She is a little down today too and I think she is just ready to go home. Today is a big transition day... being more active should help snap her out of the sleepiness and unhappiness.

 
Steeler said:
She had a rough night getting sick a couple times and one IV came out. She is still sleepy but they say anesthesia and the mediation affects people differently so the isn't unusual. She will be moving a lot more today, walking, sitting longer, etc. She is a little down today too and I think she is just ready to go home. Today is a big transition day... being more active should help snap her out of the sleepiness and unhappiness.
Click to expand...
this is a little scary to me, always was told these spine things weren't all that bad recovery wise in the short term. The fundamentals of what I'd have to do shouldn't differ all that much from what you are doing here. Same concepts and methods if I follow what's going on.

 
Today turned out better than I expected given my last update. They reduced her pain meds a bit which made her less sleepy and she didn't get sick any more. She walked a lot today and sat in a chair for about an hour. She is much more alert and isn't glum any longer like she was this AM. I had to leave the hospital a little early to take my other daughter to "back to school" night so I wasn't there for her longest walk of the day - down the hallway and back. When she got back to her room, she said to my wife "I did great, text daddy and tell him about it"!

That's my girl!

 
Steeler said:
Today turned out better than I expected given my last update. They reduced her pain meds a bit which made her less sleepy and she didn't get sick any more. She walked a lot today and sat in a chair for about an hour. She is much more alert and isn't glum any longer like she was this AM. I had to leave the hospital a little early to take my other daughter to "back to school" night so I wasn't there for her longest walk of the day - down the hallway and back. When she got back to her room, she said to my wife "I did great, text daddy and tell him about it"!

That's my girl!
Click to expand...
Awesome! Glad to hear things are going well.

 
She has been home for 2 days now and things continue to improve. She is able to sit for much longer periods of time to eat, build Lego City sets, and kick my ### at Wii - which she has done for 2 days straight :) Her spirits are much better and she's pretty much back to her self. She is still on pain meds every 4 hours and the brace is a little uncomfortable, but those things should improve with time. We still have a long way to go, but we are in a good spot at this point in the recovery.

I forgot to mention the moment when my daughter's saw each other for the first time. My other daughter (#2) didn't visit the hospital because it was the first week of school, she had to attend cheer leading, etc. - so they saw each other on Saturday when we got home. Remember how I said she hoped she would be taller than her sister after the surgery?

The three of us (daughter #1, wife and I) pull into our driver way and come into the house through the garage. There is a step up from the garage into the kitchen and when we opened the door daughter #2 was waiting to greet us inside. When daughter #1 stepped up into the house daughter #2 made this face :shock: and then daughter #1 put her fists on her hips and stood there triumphantly in her best wonder woman pose. They are at least the same height and she may have reached her goal of being taller! We won't know for sure for about 3 weeks (her body has to adjust to the changes and sort of settle in or whatever), but it was a great moment and we all died laughing.

 
RC94 said:
How is she doing?
Click to expand...
She is doing great! We are slowly weaning her off the pain medication and she is handling that well. She is able to take longer walks, sit for longer periods of time, etc. We have a follow up with the surgeon on Tuesday so we will know more at that point.

 
We saw the surgeon last Tuesday and everything looks great! He used the word amazing during our conversation so for a few days my daughter kept saying "my back is amazing" :) It's been about 4.5 weeks since the surgery and the plan has always been to send her back to school at 6 weeks after surgery - hopefully we can still reach that goal. She still rests in bed during the day so she may not be able to sit long enough to make it through the school day yet. Also, her appetite hasn't fully returned. But other than those 2 relatively minor items she is doing extremely well. We really couldn't have asked for a better result.

And she is playing us now to get more toys :) Leading up to the surgery she had to undergo a lot of tests so after each one she got to pick out a toy or whatever she wanted (she like Lego City sets). So before the meeting with the surgeon, she said "I'm a little nervous about the meeting...... maybe we can go to Toys-R-Us after". She also said this recently "I've never been to Toys-R-Us when I was this tall" :lol:

 
When they start playing the angles for toys, you know that things are going pretty well. At least she isn't asking for jewelry.

 
Wow, I didn't realize I hadn't posted in this thread since September, but the good news is that everything is going really, really well! We meet with the surgeon in 10 days for the 6 month follow up but I'm sure that will be a routine visit where he says everything continues to look good. My daughter is in no pain and is pretty much back into her normal routine. She still hasn't returned to any physical activity other than walking (she used to go to a gymnastics gym with a one-on-one coach who basically did strength, core, etc type exercises - she didn't do anything on the equipment). We are playing it safe and I'm guessing she won't return to any of that kind of activity until a year past the surgery, but we'll discuss at the next visit.

I've noticed over the last 2-3 weeks that she seems to be moving more fluidly, more quickly, and with a little less stiffness that before - and it's cool to see continued improvement this far out after surgery. And she still has her great personality. One night I asked her if she was going to put the dishes in the dishwasher and she said "I can't do that because of my back - remember?!?" :lol:

 
Had the 6 month follow up yesterday and as expected everything looks good! She is now able to do anything she wants including going on roller coasters!  She asked the doctor about it and the surgeon said no problem... wife and I will probably hold off on that for as long as possible  :)

Next follow up is one year after the surgery - hopefully everything continues to go well for her.

Thanks again to everyone for all the prayers and well wishes! 

 
Steeler said:
Had the 6 month follow up yesterday and as expected everything looks good! She is now able to do anything she wants including going on roller coasters!  She asked the doctor about it and the surgeon said no problem... wife and I will probably hold off on that for as long as possible  :)

Next follow up is one year after the surgery - hopefully everything continues to go well for her.

Thanks again to everyone for all the prayers and well wishes! 
Click to expand...
:thumbup:

 
Just found out today that she has some kind of infection and she will have surgery tomorrow to remove fluid from her left lung.  They aren't sure what caused the infection but they don't think it is related to the back surgery - but they admitted they aren't sure.  Either way, this sucks.  She just got a clean bill of health at the 6 month follow up from the surgery about 5 weeks ago and now this.  Kid can't catch a break.

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

parasaurolophus
Kid bullying my daughter.
2
Replies
57
Views
1K
Mrs. Rannous
Mrs. Rannous
Jayrod
Medical costs advice request
2
Replies
51
Views
945
Ron Swanson
Ron Swanson
snogger
Anyone gone through Haglund's deformity?
Replies
26
Views
667
snogger
snogger

Users who are viewing this thread

Total: 2 (members: 0, guests: 2)
Top