Daughter having surgery

[celestin1170]

Thank you so much Maureen for your kind words and encouragement. Your right, the anticipation is the worst part. I will keep you posted on what is going on. Her pre-op is on January 10th. Talk to you soon.

Kim
Mother of Keri

[matt]

Hi Kim!

Hi Kim! My name is Ross. I had the Posterior Spinal Fusion Surgery in September and I hope my answers help you!

After surgery I had to wear a brace. It just depends on the surgeon. If he thinks that your child will need a postoperative brace than he will give you one. The average time for surgery is 8 hours. My surgeon is the only surgeon in the country who can do this surgery in 4 hours and that is doing the regular surgery, not the laparoscapy surgery kind. The average time of hospital stay is about 5-7 days for posterior and about 7-10days for anterior.

The boy with the tubes coming out of his neck, that called a tracheostomy. That is a sort of breathing tube. That is not normal for Scoliosis surgery and you don't have to worry about that. The boy that you saw must have had some other sort of deformity for him to have to have a trache.

There are no real ways to prepare your daughter for her home coming. I know that when I got home that I got in my recliner and stayed there. I slept in it, everything. It just depends on what position she likes to be in after surgery. You won't know that until after surgery. I know that in the hospital, I hated to be put on my sides. When I got home, I liked to be on my back. Then after a few weeks, I like to be on my side. It is like you like different positions as you go.

If you have anymore questions, you can email me at hard_roc_child08@hotmail.com

Good Luck!
Ross

[jc3]

hi ross,
glad to hear you are doing well. Just thought i'd let you know that my daughter had posterior surgery in november and also had a thorocoplasty (i think i'm spelling that wrong) when you have the ribs removed and her surgery took exactly 4 hours! so i guess there are other drs. who can do it that fast.
How is your recovery going?
jennifer

[Mary Lou]

Hi Kim...Hi Ross! I don't think the thing coming out of someone's neck was necessarily a trache, but I haven't seen the pictures either. My daughter Jamie had posterior surgery for Kyphoscoliosis three weeks ago today. They had trouble starting her I.V.s and monitors because her veins are so small. When I saw her in recovery, she had oxygen in her nose; a NG tube in her nose going into her stomach (which was a surprise to me); an I.V. in her hand; a drain tube coming from her back; and an I.V. looking thing coming out of her neck. I've since learned that it was probably a central line which they used to draw blood and also that's where her pain meds and other fluids went into her body.

Jamie has a very high tolerance for pain. She had surgery on a Tuesday and came home on Sunday-had been told she could go home Saturday, but we came home Sunday instead. She was sitting up a day after surgery walking a flight of steps three days after surgery, which she has to prove she could do before gong home since her bedroom is on the second floor. She is returning to school 1/2 days Jan. 3rd; she has only had two hours of tutoring which she did at school last week; she was given a week's worth of Perocet when she left the hospital two weeks ago and hasn't even finished them; she still needs to sit in her high back rocking chair or lays down in her bed a couple of times per day;but for three weeks post-op we are very pleased! The only thing we really did to accomodate her at home was to bring her bed downstairs. She doesn't have a TV or anything like that in her bedroom, so it was easier to bring the bed downstairs. She slept upstairs for the first time last night because she has started sleeping through the night recently.

Feel free to e-mail if you need more info. or have more questions.

Mary Lou

[matt]

Hey Jennifer and Mary Lou!

Hi Jennifer. How was your Christmas? I had the thoroscapy done too. I remember that my surgery started at 7:30am and that I was being wheeled out of recovery at 1pm. I thought that, that was pretty cool, thought not at the time because I was too doped up, lol ! My recovery is going okay. For the first 7 weeks, I was doing absolutely wondreful. I was able to go places, I was able to have the tutor come twice a week, and I wasn't having alot of pain. Now it's sorta going downhill. About a month ago, I started to have pain in my upper back around my neck area, so we took the 5hr trip to Shreveoprt and the doc told us that one of the wires in my neck area had broken. He sent me home saying that he was going to leave it. So, I called him last week to tell him that the pain is getting worst and he told me that he was going to have to remove the broken wire if it kept irritating me. But, he wasn't going to do it now, because he wants to see how I heal first. Keep in mind that Spinal Fusion healing takes 6 months to a year . So now, I'm just going to wait until my next appointment at the end of April. I think that it's sorta a sucky deal. Kim, the thing coming out of the boy's neck could be a peripheral subclavian. It's a sort of IV. I can't wait until tomorrow! I get to drive for driver's ed. I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to with the surgery and all. And my birthday is also tomorrow! WOOO HOOO!

Hope that you guys have a great day!
Ross

[celestin1170]

Thank you all so much for sharing your stories with me....you guys are the best!! You have all made me feel so much better about this whole thing. Our pre-op appointment is on Jan. 10th. We will get all the details about the surgery then. I'll let you all know the details when we get home. Thanks again to all of you for you support. Talk to everyone soon.

Kim
Keri's mom

[jc3]

hi matt
i can't believe that one of the wires have broken! That is terrible. How long ago did you have the surgery?? How bad is the pain from the broken wire? Are you back to school yet? Sorry to ask so many questions it just makes me nervous knowing that something like that can all of a sudden happen. Did the dr. say why something like that would happen? When do you think they will operate? I am sorry to hear that you have to go through all this. It's hard enough going through the surgery and then recovering nicely and for something to all of a sudden go wrong.
good luck and i hope you feel better

jennifer

[matt]

Answers for Jennifer

Hey Jennifer. I had the surgery 3 months ago last week. The pain levels from the broken wire in a scale about 0-10 is about 6 or 7. All I have to say is that the pain levels are up there. I have no idea when they might operate. They still want to see me at the end of April. I think that is ridiculous! If it keeps hurting like this in a month or so, I think that I will call them back and tell them they need to do something. The doc says that the pain can't be from the wire, but the pain is in the place were the wire is broken. That is the only place that I have "pain". The rest of my back I have uncomfortance. I am back in school. I have been in school for about a month (It was about a month when we left for the Xmas holidays). Do you have an email address? Why don't you email me? That way we talk about this further! Hope that you guys have a nice day tomorrow! Ross

[jc3]

hi matt
A 6 or 7 pain level sounds really bad to me so it sounds like you are in alot of pain. I've never heard of a wire breaking but maybe someone else on the board has. I can't believe they are making you wait until april. Maybe you need to call them again. I didn't have your e-mail address to e-mail you so i'm posting

jennifer