Hey WNCmom!

[WNCmom]

Sidney in Surgery

Sidney is now in surgery. We last saw him at 8 am and the actual surgery began an hour ago. I feel like a basket case--very rattled. He kept his sense of humor both before and after they gave him sedation in the OR holding area. A strong and brave kid.

Thanks for all your thoughts and prayers--we need them. I'll update you as soon as I can. We were told it would be late this afternoon before we would see him.

Mary Ellen

[pmsmom]

My dd and I said a prayer for you all this morning. You will continue to be in our thoughts all day.

Please keep us posted!

Marian

[scoliboymom]

His strength and positive attitude will get you and your family through this. Please know that I am thinking of you today.

Ramona

[jillw]

MaryEllen, Praying and hoping for Sidney.....

[Sherie]

Best wishes Mary Ellen, your family will be in my thoughts today. Stay strong!

[laurieg6]

Hi Mary Ellen,

I wish your son all the best. You are now in surgery still, I believe, and this is the hardest part. You are almost on "the other side" and it will only get better. After the first few days (a week or two for some) post-op, your son will start to be feeling and doing things like his old self.

My son had a long lumbar fusion (to L3) with only about a 50% correction because of his hemivertebra. He looks and feels so much better now. He was never really flexible and isn't flexible now either so I can't speak to that. But his outlook on life is so much happier now that the surgery is over. We all just hope and pray that a second surgery won't ever be necessary.

Hang in there and try to stay calm. What helped me during the surgery and the whole hospital stay was keeping a notebook and writing down everything that happened - Dr's. names, names, times and doses of meds, anything. Alexander really likes to read about it still today.

[flowerpower]

Hi Mary Ellen,

I've not been on much lately, but just checked in and saw your thread. So sorry surgery became a necessity but my thoughts and prayers are with you and Sidney for a successful, uncomplicated surgery and recovery. Our sons situations are similar, Joe's curves progressed so aggressively and rapidly he also had to have surgery much sooner than planned. I know it's hard not to feel guilty, but realize you've done everything you could as a parent, surgery is something we all want to avoid or put off as long as possible and this spine condition can be so unpredictable it still surprises even the doctors. I know Joe's dr. was surprised by how quickly Joe progressed.

With Joe, while his T curve was corrected to 17 deg., the rotation had progressed so much that he had and still has, quite a bit of a rib hump. That may not be the case with Sidney though, if the dr. said his rotation has not increased. So a correction of 45 can still possibly be something you can be satisfied with if there's not much asymmetry to begin with. It may be hard to tell at first. It may take a while for the body to "settle" into position. I can't help as far as kyphosis, that was never an issue for Joe. As far as flexibility and mobility, Joe does fine. He bends at the waist or knees to pick something up off the ground. He has no trouble looking over his shoulder when driving a car. He can twist his body, just not as far (hey, that rhymes, anyone want to brainstorm for a scoli limerick) ok, back on topic; Joe is as active as he "wants" to be, he has no limitations except for contact and extreme sports (which wasn't on his agenda anyway). He may get some soreness from a long day on his feet (he's in marching band), sleeping on his stomach, etc. He's gone to Disneyland and rode everything he wanted except for maybe like Space Mountain (too dark, unpredictable and jarring).
He had even taken a really hard spill this past summer (collided with brother who ended up in hosp. with concussion and skull fracture) and was ok even though his back slammed up against the curb.

Hope this was helpful. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask. Please keep us posted when you can.

Take care,
Renee

[Pooka1]

Wacthing the clock

Thinking of Sidney.

Take care,
sharon

[Susie*Bee]

Sending hugs and prayers your way. --Susie

[jillw]

MaryEllen, hopefully you are in with Sidney right now after hearing from the doctors about a successful surgery. Hopefully you are all on "the other side" now and can focus on recovery.

[Kitty]

Thinking of YOu

Hi Mary Ellen,
Please know you are in my thoughts and I wish you and Sidney all the best. I hope you are both doing well.

Please let us know how it all went.

*HUGS*

lisa

[Cheryl M]

My prayers go out to you. I pray for a successful and fast recovery. Please e-mail me if I can help out with any advice. I've been through this twice.

Cheryl

[WNCmom]

Surgery over; Sidney is fine

Thank you all for all your wonderful words, thoughts, and prayers.

Sidney is fine. Surgery was 9 hours. He is fused T2 to L4. Dr. Cahill must be a magician; when he showed us the x-rays at about 5:30 pm, the correction looked nearly straight to my unpracticed eye. He was also able to build in kyphosis that is, in his words "just about normal." In addition to being very good at what he does, I think he's a master of understatement--very low key.

Sidney is in PICU and doing very well. Oriented, calm, complient, and using sign language until he got the breathing tube out. He even asked to have photos taken before he was extubated last night. Face swelled as to be almost unrecognizable (he could not open his eyes at first); it is much better today, but he has a ways to go.

He used the three units of blood that he, his father, and I gave, during surgery. There was mention of a possible post-op transfusion, but that is looking less and less likely. He is sitting up now and will walk today. A little bit of lung congestion today, but sitting up will help that. They are hearing a few gurgles in the intestines, and he is desparate for water, but Dr. Cahill is very strict about nothing at all until gas is passed. We know how important that is.

I'll try to send more later today. This is the first time I've been able to access the internet, although I think we may get that in the PICU today.

Thanks again for being there.

Mary Ellen

P.S. I'm sure this will be no surprise to you, but we were unable to follow Sidney's instructions while we waited. We did not sleep, I could not read, and we most decidedly DID watch the clock.

[mariaf]

WHAT GREAT NEWS, MARY ELLEN!!!

You must be sooooo relieved and I could not be happier for you!!!!!!

[flowerpower]

Glad to hear everything went well. Sounds like Sidney is doing amazingly well for just going through a 9 hr. surgery! Welcome to "the other side" of surgery! Keep us posted -

Renee