She had her first post op appt this morning, and the surgeon is quite pleased. She has lost 7 lbs since her last visit, and gained one inch height. (We measured a two inch increase...but she is definitely much taller to us!)
The doc said her incision has "sealed" so clean and nice, and no need to bandage it up anymore. The steri strips are still perfectly intact. He told us that we can peel them off, or leave them.
My extremely "sensitive skinned girl" opted to leave them on. She is even a little wigged out about not having the extra protection of the bandaging on her back. She doesn't feel comfortable now flat on her back because it feels so weird to her not having the padding of the dressings there.
New x-rays of her back were taken this morning to compare to the old pre surgery x-rays. He showed us the difference, and Wow, a lot of hardware in there! There was one shot of her from the side, and all of those long screws looked like they were taking up half of her body!! He said they should not bother her...but man, there are 15 of those big ol' screws in there!!!
These are photos of another gal on flickr who had the same type of surgery J had. Her photos/x-rays looks almost identical to what my j's looked like this morning. Except, J's rods go down longer about two more vertebrae down to L3, whereas this girls stops at L1. So I thought some of you medically inclined folks would like to see. I've ordered x-rays of J's, and will post those once I get them. Until then, this one is pretty darned close to the same:
photos of above taken by darcimanley's photostream:
J's surgeon was amazed at how well she was doing.
She has restrictions for quite some time. No bending, twisting, lifting, or rigorous physical activity of anything much...for 6 months! Even when she swims, he just wants her to paddle around, no major swimming of laps such as freestyle or swimming of laps for at least 6 months!
Since she had 12 fusion, those must heal properly so that her back will not try to begin bending again. If the fusions do not heal properly, her spine could even begin bending the rods...so the fusions healing properly are total key! The titanium rods are softer than stainless steel (she had to have titanium due to her metal allergies) She will need to be EXTRA cautious concerning her restrictions.
I've already given brother, aka the Bubb, the whole run down again...no bumping up into her or pulling on her...no rough housing of ANY kind! It could mean big trouble for J if things get knocked outta whack.
We are so thankful to God, and to you all for your prayers, love and support of our family.
God's healing power is so amazing!!! Please keep those prayers coming. The fusions are still healing, and we welcome continued prayer concerning this too.
5 comments:
Hey Jenn, you can read All About my surgery here: http://www.scoligirl.com/ :)
It's been over two years for me, and I'm 100% fine. Took about 6 months until I felt at about 95% recovered, and probably a full year until I felt good as new. If you have any particular questions after looking through the site, let me know, and best of luck to you and your daughter!
Wow Darci! Thank you for sharing this!!!
It made me shudder to think that J's could have gone this way though. You have been through so much!!!
She did have a few complications...her left lower lung deflated, and she had to have two blood transfusion. She was in surgery for about 3.5 hrs, and had some trouble in recover...we didn't get to see her for 2 more hrs after surgery.
I'm even more grateful of J's progress after reading your bio and seeing what you went through.
We too had the BEST surgeon!!! Even the Dr's of this area have used him for their own babies...I'm saying, he is a total class act with pediatric scoliosis! We also had a consult 2nd opinion from The Mayo Clinic Rochester. MN prior to her surgery.
I'm so thankful you were in such good hands in KS!
Thank you for sharing your story with the world, it was so encouraging to read.
Blessings, Jenn
What are the things sticking out to the front? They look like tie straps. That is a lot of hardware!
We cannot wait to have Jordan at crosslink and church again.
And thank you for all of the updates!!!
Now give the MacBook to Jordan so she can blog!!!
Claude...hahaha!!! Those kids have the macbook more than me!!! Especially that Bubb and his moviemaking! I have to stay up all hours of the night and early am to get it! ;)
We definitely can use another laptop around here, especially with their schooling...it would help for sure!
Looking forward to seeing you all! :-D
Oh Claude...those long sticky outy things from the side shot are the 15 screws hold the rods in place. Kinda wild, isn't it???
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