Caleb's surgery was scheduled to be a 6 hour surgery, with 1 hour for anesthesia and surgical prep in the operating room, 3-4 hour surgical time, and 1 hour recovery. Caleb went in for surgery at 8:30am and we were expecting to see him around 2:30-3pm. We sat in the waiting room, contemplating how we were going to make it through the day.
Around 12pm the nurse came out to tell us that the surgery was less complex than anticipated and that Dr. Paley was finishing up the surgery and would be out shortly to speak with us. I sat on the edge of my seat as I waited to get the details. Dr. Paley has always explained that there is a lot that can't be seen on x-rays and he doesn't really know what he will do in surgery until he opens up the patient. In Caleb's case, his foot is not 'normal' but he has somehow compensated for this defect resulting in really good movement within the foot. Dr. Paley thought the superankle wasn't necessary for Caleb and feels he will achieve the same outcome through repositioning his leg and foot within the fixator frame during the lengthening process. Dr. Paley's goal with Caleb is to realign his leg and foot properly and to do the lengthening.
Caleb has had only one other surgery in his life and it was to release the tendons that were pulling his foot in an awkward position. Dr. Paley expected he was going to do another tendon release but after closely looking at Caleb's foot in surgery, he reconsidered because he didn't want to go through all the scar tissue. He performed an osteotomy at the base of the tibia to realign the bone on top of the foot. The fixator is keeping Caleb's foot and leg in position so as everything heals, it will heal in the proper positioning. The site of the osteotomy at the base of the tibia is where we are also lengthening. Dr. Paley removed the anlage (or the fibrous tissue that took the place of where the fibula would have been) and he removed a tiny remnant of a fibula that was also present and put a metal plate in Caleb's knee to correct the knock-knee.
As we waited to be called back to the recovery room to see Caleb, I honestly was expecting to see a crying, groggy little boy. I was the first one back to see him since the hospital only lets one person at a time in the recovery room. Besides being a bit thirsty, Caleb was STILL in good spirits and doing great! He told me he had already taken a peak at his fixator and it wasn't a big as he thought it was going to be. His attitude was amazing, he was already starting to get silly again, and he was completely OKAY!!
COUNTING THE MANY BLESSINGS!
I left the recovery room so that his dad could see him. He was back there for 15 minutes. Then Caleb was being transfered to his room.
Caleb with his sister on the evening of the surgery. Poor little guy was starving and finally getting to eat after not having anything since 10pm the night before.
Brother Zackery so relieved that Caleb is okay!
No comments:
Post a Comment