Post-op and MRI

Hey! Look at that, I made it back!

BabyGirl had surgery Sept. 29, 2015. All the technical terms that get thrown around and the way it changes just a little bit each time we meet…well..what actually happened has gotten lost in translation. But she had surgery on her foot to lengthen and release tendons to work on achieving a flatter foot on her right side.

She had serial casting for three weeks prior to surgery. First she picked out a purple cast, because purple is her favorite color. Mr. Will forgot to offer her sparkles though. He felt very bad that he didn’t remember them until she was walking out the door. So he told her to remind him next time and if she wanted them, he’d be sure to hook her up. She remembered. So the second time she had pink camouflage with purple sparkles. Mmhmm Girly girl. Then she surprised everyone by getting dinosaurs.

Then surgery.

They were slow getting her back that day, she was getting hungry. They finally came for her, over two hours after anticipated. Everything went well. She was soon happily chugging down apple juice and throwing back french fries in her overnight room.

She never complained of any pain or discomfort. All night. She did great! Oh and she had a bright pink cast put on that time. We didn’t see her incisions until a week later at follow up. Again, all looked well and was going great.

Throughout the initial casting she was allowed to wear a boot and walk. But not after surgery. We were sent home with a wheelchair, which she figured out very quickly. However, he preferred mode of transportation was the plasma car. If you don’t know what that is, Google it. They’re awesome! We already owned one from a few years ago, it has gotten much use. But the week before surgery I happened to see one at a thrift store so I snatched it up. Then it dawned on me how brilliant this was. She can scoot all about the house on it on our wood floors.

So now we have a few weeks of post op casting with NO weight bearing. Plasma car is a life saver!

Now going into this whole serial casting/surgery thing, doc mentioned getting an MRI just to check if anything was going on there affecting this foot. He was confident enough that it wasn’t, so continued with the surgery. But concerned just enough about everything that he put a call in to her neurosurgeon who concurred and thus the MRI was ordered.

That’s what we did today. Went to one hospital for the sedated MRI. This girl is a RIOT ‘drunk’ by the way. Most don’t see the really funny side of this girl, certainly not doctors and nurses. She’s all quiet and serious around them, whereas at home she’s wild and free and chatty. But waking up from sedation…she was something else. I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face. I mentioned the plasma car…we bring that to doctor’s visits and such so she can get around on her own. So, we had that with us, but obviously, after sedation, she wasn’t going to be driving it back out to the van. First a nurse mentioned grabbing a wagon. My daughter just mumbles ‘no, no wagon’, the nurse didn’t hear. Nurse comes back after a bit saying she couldn’t find a wagon, so “we’ll have to use a wheel chair” and that’s when my daughter had the room rolling. She whipped her head around and shouted in drunk redneck fashion “I don’t need a wheelchair, I have my plasma car” with an indignant flair. ‘Sweetie, you’re too drunk to drive, we’ll get you a wagon to safely ride’ She continued to blabber on and laugh and crack herself up with little things. She noticed she was dizzy and wondered why then would break out in laughter. Oh goodness she was fun to watch.

Anyway, we finally made it downtown to meet with the neurosurgeon who in typical fashion plainly stated the facts and was on his way. Pretty much that fast.

Our girl has a very complicated case of lipomyelomeningocele. Doc says it is so complicated, you couldn’t drag him back into the OR kicking and screaming, to work on her, unless we told him she was drastically falling off the charts neurogenically speaking. But she’s not. She’s doing just fine. She gets along fine, there have been no changes or set backs. She’s still progressing and getting along just fine. So he says no surgery. He says he’s worried going in would cause more harm than good and if she’s already fine…leave it alone.

So, no surgery, that’s a good thing.

But that ‘complicated case’ thing is kinda hanging with me. What does that mean for her future? Right now it doesn’t seem as though that means anything negative, it’s not had any adverse affect on her. But will that always be the case? Will things just look like a mess down there…but ‘miraculously’ manage to keep functioning well? I’m not real sure what that means. So, I guess I can mull that over for a while and if questions arise, write them down for clinic in June.

Until then…two more weeks in this cast then she’s fitted for a new brace, with my not so favorite folks…but doc swears by their work and we trust doc so I’ll just be bold and request that the techs go back outside and air out after their smoke and wash their hands before touching my daughter, should the need arise again.