Tuesday, May 13, 2014

Surgery, April 15th

My favorite picture, this is post surgery and Ethan just asked her where it hurt and she replied, "where do you think?" and gave us this look. Spunky little stinker.   

When Kate had bilateral hip surgery a couple of years ago, we knew this day would come. Kate had long plates with screws on the outside of each femur and they needed to come out. And the main reason being that at some point in the future she will likely need hip replacements. Great, right? I'm hoping for when she is 50, or 60, or never.
Waiting to go in





Here is a girl who is far too happy to be having surgery. She knows the routine so well, she can tell the staff members what is coming next.

Kate was supposed to use crutches for three weeks post surgery and no sports for six weeks. She can't do sports anyway due to her heart, but no rough housing around for six weeks. The bones were very weak and needed time to fill in the area where the plates and screws had been.

 The surgery went well and Kate was a trooper. One night in the hospital, yay! She did struggle a little bit to put pressure on her legs and so for the first 2 days she used a wheelchair at home. By day three she was sneaking about without her crutches.

At our one week post op visit, Kate pretty much carried her crutches into the hospital. I had to keep reminding her to use them, if for no other reason than the doc won't yell at mom. Everything looked great, but we were told two more weeks on the crutches just to "slow her down". She took them to school for one more week, only used them at recess and to walk out to the car. She has done so well with this surgery, by day three she was just taking Tylenol and was lamenting to go swimming. That had to wait.

Kate is doing great. One little glitch...a few days before surgery, Kate complained that her back hurt. This happened about three times. Finally had to take her in. The doctor thought it was just a pulled muscle and she hasn't complained since. But, since she was there, they did a back x-ray and found that her scoliosis has gotten more severe. We are officially on a 6 month monitoring schedule for that instead of the yearly. Sigh... and the band played on.

Practicing with crutches before surgery
Literally feeding her ANYTHING she wants just to get food in that belly. Almost ready to go home.
One week post surgery visit. Kate LOVES those paper shorts. (Sarcasm, Sheldon, as Kate would say)
Such a happy girl, pre surgery.     



Braces!

First of all, ignore the water, she had just had a drink from the fountain :)  Another beauty of Marfans is the palate issues and the bite issues. She got her expander out and braces on the top teeth probably about 2 months ago. Yes, I know. I am just rocking it at keeping things updated. As you can see from this picture, her top teeth are going up and down, and up and down, all over the place.  She was a little sore the first two days, and then nothing.


We went back 6 weeks later and the results are amazing! Check out this after picture!  She is getting braces on the bottom in a few weeks. The teeth are looking straighter, but the bite is still way off.