Hi everyone-
I meant to update immediately after Ben's surgery, but he had a bit of a bumpy recovery, so I really didn't have time to post. When I can, I will post some before and after pictures.
I'm copying and pasting a bit of a private message I had sent Casey about the surgery, so Casey if you get the feeling that you have read this all before, you have.. hope that's all right with you!
So, the surgery went well. It took approximately 6 hours. Dr. Skaggs came out at the end and was really happy about how it went. From the sound of things at the time, he did a full correction, so his back is now at the curve that it should be. We will find out more when we see him about what levels were done and actual percent correction.
Pain wise, the days following the surgery were pretty brutal. When he first woke up there was a lot of pain, but after a bit they were able to medicate him to where he was feeling okay. They had this bag, I forget the name that had local anesthetic that was released over a number of days post surgery. A lot of that was supposed to wear off overnight, according to the nurse, but his seemed to last a lot longer.
Ben had some complications post surgery that had to do with his breathing. If they were to adequately medicate him for the pain, he would essentially stop breathing, so they had to figure out how to keep him breathing and manage the pain. He ended up having to stay in the hospital 10 days but about 1/2 of that time was due to their trying to get his breathing under control. He had to be transferred to the ICU on the day after surgery because of the breathing problems.
We don't really know for sure how many inches of height he gained post surgery. Going in he was about 6' when relaxed and up to 6'3" if he stood up as tall as he could or wore his brace. Post surgery, when we were walking around the floor, we measured him and it said 6'1" looking at him, he is definitely well over 6'1".
It's too early to get an answer about whether he'd do it knowing what he knows now. I think that as time passes and the pain is pretty much gone, he's going to be really really happy he did it. His back looks absolutely beautiful. There is a huge difference.
We had some excitement trying to get Ben home because of the extra inches of height in his torso. We were literally unable to get him into the car. Not being able to bend and twist, his head was still about a foot and a half above the car. I had to finally get the PT to come with us to the car and help us. He had some fun trying to figure out the best way for Ben to enter and exit the vehicle. The car is officially too small for him now, and he and his brother are both needing to sit in the front seat, so this should be interesting.
This whole situation with getting in and out of the car made me realize how little the PT's do in getting you back to all the activities of daily life before you are discharged from the hospital. Ben's way too tall to use the bathroom sink for brushing his teeth and other sink activities, so for now he's going to have to use the kitchen sink. The PT's only seem to focus on walking and going up stairs (if they know you have stairs in the house). I don't know if this is unique to where Ben had his surgery (a children's hospital) or pretty typical, but it seems to be an area that's pretty overlooked-- the getting in and out of the car w/o twisting and turning, and doing the other things adults typically have to do every day.
It's too soon for Ben to say that he regrets or doesn't regret doing the surgery. I think if you asked him now, he'd say he wishes he hadn't done the surgery, but my guess is that once he is feeling a lot better, he's going to be really happy about his back. He's also going to someday feel really good getting up in the morning now that we've figured out the breathing issues during sleep.
If you have any ? please don't hesitate pm'ing me or posting here. I'll update again in a few weeks about Ben's feelings about the surgery and how he looks and feels.
ej
Post edited by: elkepelka, at: 06/15/2010 02:02 PM
Post edited by: elkepelka, at: 06/15/2010 02:14 PM
