5th Medical Procedure

Infection the night before the procedure- not looking bad but it did draw the aware pre-op Nurse's attention

Traditional photo- walking in using crutches this time...

The past two procedures were very easy but I was very nervous about today's since we weren't 100% sure we knew what Dr. Scott would be doing. To add to my stress, the written surgery description was to remove the fixator and replace it with with a full leg cast. However, when we saw Dr. Scott he said he would be replacing the two pins where the infection was, shorten the fixator, and put a cast on her foot. WHEW! Exactly what I was hoping for!

Mary had the same anesthesiologist as when she had the fixator put on in May.

Same team as when Mary had the fixator put on

Dr. Scott is always very good with his estimates for surgery time. The procedure took 1 and 1/2 hours. When we arrived in the Recovery Room Mary didn't look good and she had told the nurse she was feeling pain. We have learned through all of Mary's procedures she luckily has a very high pain tolerance so when she was asking for medicine I was nervous!

Feeling better

Initially

Mary was given a total of two doses of morphine and we gave her the Tylenol with Codeine that we brought with us for the ride home. Recovery took 2 hours since she had one experience of not feeling so good so she had to lay flat again for a little bit.

removed hardware

new look (they didn't have a new pink ring but hopefully the pink cast makes up for the loss of a pink ring :-) )

They gave Mary a dose of intravenous antibiotic and we are to finish the Keflex prescription (2 more days).

Mary was fine at home until 9pm when she was getting ready for bed and standing really bothered her. So she will not be going to school tomorrow. She feels fine when her leg is elevated.

Dr. Scott said her bone is looking really good. I was able to communicate to Dr. Scott that we are not in a rush to get the fixator completely removed until we know the bone is fine. We don't want the bone to collapse from taking it off too early when now that the cause of the infection is gone there is no need.

We see Dr. Scott in two weeks and he indicated he will take the cast off and put a new one on at that time.