Yesterday's surgery updates

Haley's surgery took a little over 4 hours today. We saw Dr. Mosca, one of the top foot surgeons in the nation and who sees people from all over the world. He listed Haley in his top 5 of most difficult. He did releases of the achilles tendon and other muscles in the hind foot and her foot did not respond at all. When he opened up the inside, he was unable to locate any joints. The bones in her foot had essentially already fused themselves together. He was able to remove the portion of the bone that was in the place where the navicular should have been and was able to bring her forefoot back around & down. He also had to shave down part of the heel bone (calcaneous) as it was protruding from being dislocated (pointed down). Once this was all done, she now has a flatter foot that she can more evenly distribute the weight on and her foot is facing forward as we had hoped. It is anticipated that surgery will hold for her. He was not able to completely get the heel bone back in place, however, if down the road there are more issues, it is an option to cut down that bone as well. He told us that by getting the surgery done now that we have given her the best chances of walking comfortably. Had we waited, one of the next options on the table would have been amputation and prosthetic feet for her. She is in her room and sleeping now. First thing in the recovery room she was very upset with having the casts on. She did not like them, they were not pink & they didn't have Dora. lol She told me that "having casts is just no fun." Hopefully her spirits rise as the pain goes away.

Mason has now been in the OR for 9 hours and they expect another hour before he makes it to recovery. This last hour they are measuring him for bracing and then have to apply the body cast. We just got to sit down with the surgeon and go over everything. They did the soft tissue releases in both feet, however, they still kept wanting to turn back out. It was decided that he would need the navicular bones removed in both feet as well, just as Haley had done. The difference though, is that Mason’s feet were much more flexible, no fused bones, and all joints were identifiable. They didn’t have to do any shaving down of other bones either. So his feet are now in good alignment.

The kneecap was easily put back in place. They rerouted a tendon to help stabilize. No quadriceps lengthening was needed. YAY! The hamstrings looked good. They released the envelope that surrounds the hamstring, but no major release was needed. Once they were in they were easily able to lengthen his hip extensor to allow him to straighten out his leg more at the hip as well.

The hip was easily put back in as well after they cut out a section of the femur (about ¾ inch). There were no issues with blood supply or stretching of the nerves. Doctor felt the hip was very stable and held well once they turned down the socket.

They were unable to give him an epidural for pain control due to the scar tissue of his spinal cord detethering. They just reserved him a room in the ICU in case there is an issue with pain, however, the surgeon stated they had reduced the anesthesia and his body was currently handling it & breathing on his own. I pray this stays the case, but if being in the ICU would make him more comfortable then I hope they put him there.