The surgery would be a short 4 hours, as oppose to the last time (a 6-7 hour surgery). This time, it seemed tompast fairly quickly for Keith and I. It was still so hard to hand him over for surgery, but I did well with minimal tears. There is something about watching your child on "happy juice" that makes it a bit easy because they are so funny. I actually forgot how loopy they get.
The surgery was very successful and the doctor was happy with how it went and the positioning of JPs ex-fix. Due to Jonathan's leg being on the smaller side, we now have a goal of 3-4 cm for lengthening, rather then the 5cm we thought. This is so we don't compromise his bone.
They say that you go on to have more kids because you forget the pain of labor and only remember the joy of having the child. I feel the same about JPs journey. I forgot how horrible it is to see your kid in pain. How useless you feel when you can't help take away the pain. JP doesn't come out of anesthesia well- he thrashes and screams and cries. We try everything to calm him down, but with little success.
This time was so rough because he could verbalize his pain. It broke my heart to hear him say, "take off my superman leg" and "Mommy it hurts, make it stop". Friday night into Saturday was very difficult and meant no sleep for JP, Keith or I. Jonathan was in pain and didn't understand why. He also hated all the tubes and wires. It nearly broke Keith and I (again) and made us question (again).
Saturday came and it was a new day...a little bit better of a day. Just like last time, JPs epidural came out. This time he decided to pulled it right out of his back. This meant we had to get ahead of his pain now with oral medication, but also had us freaking out that he paralyzed himself. The CRNA (anesthesiologist) came and reassured us (more then once) he was okay and that he didn't paralyze himself. After the epidural was out, JP became more like himself. This time it seems we were better getting ahead of his pain and Saturday was a good night.
Sunday came and the "old" JP was back. He wanted to eat, he asked to get out of bed and sit in the chair, he wanted to play, and wanted to just get out of his room. His (very awesome) doctor came in and checked him out and said go home! So by Sunday night JP was in his own environment and sleeping in his own bed and that was all he needed (just like last time).
Since being home, JP had been doing well. He definitely has pain at times, but he has moments of being himself. He is also starting to play more and more instead of just sitting and watching tv. He even learned to maneuver around the house. It's like watching your kid go through all the infant milestones in a few days. First he sat up and was playing, then he was scooting around the house, then crawling, and recently he has been standing and cruising around furniture, which means in no time, he will be walking... I mean running again!
Today, we had our first post-op appt and all looks great. We are now officially lengthening. What that means is we start turning his struts. This is exciting and causing me anxiety all in one. He has 6 struts to be turned/moved and they come with a schedule. Today was the first of 3 and I'm so nervous about if I moved them to the right spot!
We also start pin care, which means carefully cleaning the pin sites to (hopefully) keep infections away. For about the next two months, we will turn JPs struts and hope to gain length in his bone while keeping infection at bay. So please keep us in your thoughts and prayers as we strategically lengthening his leg and hope for minimal pain and pin site infections.
This surgery has so many similarities as his first, but also so many differences. But just like the last one, I know the joy we will feel when we see his leg being closer to even then it was before.
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