Surgery Day #1 - Spine and Right Knee

(Posted a day late)

Whew what a day! Started (not so) bright and early at 4:15 am; we were out the door by 4:50 to drive across the hospital campus to the surgery center. Another huge blessing of being at Quantum House is that everything happens right here! Got checked in at 5:00 and taken back to pre-op pretty quickly. That’s when she revolted and refused to take the anti-anxiety medicine which resulted in 3 of us having to hold her down while they put in IV. 3 grown adults vs a 42 lb kid. She almost won 🤷‍♀️ Once the IV was in, they gave her the versed anyway and she was fine - already working on a better plan for next time.

They took her back around 7:15ish; came out around 9:00 to let me know they just got started because they had some difficulty intubating her. Whether it was from some congestion or her screaming for 20 minutes, her airway was super irritated and constricted and she had some bronchospasms.

After that, everything went really well. Spinal cord tether was taken care of with no issues; nerves functioned perfectly the entire time. He was able to close with internal sutures that will dissolve and just steri-strips on the outside so no need to do anything else back there.

Knee release went better than anticipated! We were hoping to go from 90* bend to 30-40* but he was able to get it all the way to 0* without any issues 🥳

Look at that straight leg 😍😍

After that, I got to wait two more hours while they closed until they finally let me back into recovery. We got moved to PICU pretty quickly after and she is settled in and resting. She is semi-awake but says she has no pain; they’ll keep her pretty medicated the first day and half.

She did wake up briefly and I showed her a picture if her leg. When I told her they were able to get all the way to 0* her eyes got huge and she gave me a big smile and sleepily said “my dream!!!” 😭😍😭😍

Thank you all for your prayers, thoughts, and well wishes. Please keep them coming!