Kimmie's (ca-native) surgery today :)

[txmarinemom]

Elaine's (Kimmie's mom) emailed me earlier to say the surgery was succesful - after a bit of a scare early on with anesthesia.

As some of you may remember from one of her earlier posts, Elaine and Kimmie face some special challenges on a daily basis, and a few extra ones during her recovery. Kimmie's a 15 year old sweetheart, who also happens to be autistic, mentally retarded and is cognitively 3-5 years of age. She has extremely limited receptive/expressive communication abilities which made it near impossible for Elaine to prepare Kimmie for surgery.

Please keep them in prayers, your thoughts, your well wishes ... however you choose to send positive energy.

(Elaine doesn't have constant Internet access at the hospital ... and will only be online periodically when she's across the street at the Ronald McDonald house).

She sent me this earlier, and gave permission to keep the list updated as I receive more information. I know several who were wishing them well today .
_________________________________________________


Hello Everyone,

First of all: Kimmy is out of surgery and I will be able to see her soon. She had a total of 11 vertebrae fused (T4-L2). The surgery had a slight drama to it as her heart rate slowed down and her blood pressure dropped two times within the first 20 minutes of surgery. Fortunately the anesthesiologist was able to adjust the meds used for sedation and the remainder of the surgery was able to be completed.

Due to these heart issues, Dr. Newton (the ortho doctor) decided not be more aggressive in correcting her rib hump (NOTE: Elaine later told me he hadn't planned to do a thoracoplasty ... it was by some other method, and I don't have the details.). He felt he was able to achieve a very good curve correction and the rib hump will not be nearly as pronounced.

As I told him, I appreciated him being more conservative since the main goal of the surgery is to stabilize the curve for health reasons.

Also due to the drop of her heart rate, she will be in ICU for at least one day and they gave her one unit of blood as a precaution to ensure she does as well as possible.

Thank you all for you support and well wishes. I'll send another update when I get access to the internet again (it is not available in the hospital so I have to go across the street to the Ronald McDonald House). I'm going back over to the hospital now so I can see my sweetie.

Take care,
Elaine
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BTW, she had nothing but praise for Dr. Newton (if anyone happens to be seeking feedback on him). Her exact words in the second email were:

"He is such a great doctor, he very patiently explained the situation and I really appreciate that."

I'll update everyone if/when I hear more.

Best regards,
Pam

[Aussiemum]

Big hugs to you Elaine and especially to Kimmie!!! Tell her people on the other side of the world are thinking of her and wishing her a very speedy recovery!!! It's a huge relief once they are out of that operating room isn't it!!! I'm sure they'll take good care of her in ICU and the wards.

Just remember one thing that everyone kept telling me and it's hard to believe at the early stages.... they DO turn the corner from total despair - to walking and smiling again very very quickly. You won't see it coming - it just happens!!!!! Never would have believed it if I hadn't witnessed it with my own eyes with Elysia.

Kids are wonderful and she'll bounce right back, you'll see!!!!

Cyber hugs from Australia
Del

[flowerpower]

Glad to hear they were able to deal with the complications from anesthesia and complete the surgery. Hope & pray things go smoothly from here on out. I'm not surprised about the praise for Dr. Newton, I know from experience what an awesome dr. he is. Kimmy is in good hands not only with Dr. Newton, but the hospital staff as well. Thanks for the update, keep us posted.

Renee

[LorDon]

Elaine,
I'm so happy to hear that Kimmie is finally on the other side of the surgery and is doing relatively well. Best wishes for a smooth and uneventful recovery. You will both be in my prayers.

Hugs to you and a little gentle hug for Kimmie,

[ca-native]

Thanks!

Hello Everyone,

Thank you for the well wishes. It looks like Kim will be moved out of ICU today and over to the ortho unit sometime this afternoon. What a relief!

The doctor who is doing a fellowship with Dr. Newton and was in the operating room with him as well, stopped by this morning and I asked her about the rib hump correction. She said that he did derotate the vertebra and so my interpertation of his "not being as aggressive" is more in the line that he is an expert and so he may not have gotten as perfect as he would have wanted, but the rib hump is still reduced. Once she gets out of bed today or tomorrow I'll let you all know how it looks.

Oh, and thank you Pam for getting the word about Kimmy. I truly appreciate this great support system.

Bye for now,

[MATJESNIC]

My thoughts and prayers are with Kimmy and your family. You will all get through this. You have so many people rooting for y'all.