Skip to main content

Out of surgery

Abby is out of surgery and in the PICU.  Her pain seems to be well managed and she is pretty calm.  She can't tolerate sitting up yet, but she wants to watch cartoons.  Matt is holding the iPad over her head for her!

 

The brace is connected to the halo in the front and the back by a bar.  The straps are pretty tight, so she really can't move her head at all.  Her throat is sore from the intubation, so she isn't talking.  We are communicating through sign language and yes/no cards for now!

The surgery went well and he was able to switch out everything he needed to.  Several of the screws were loose and everything was close to the surface, so hopefully this will work better.  

The nerve specialist monitoring her function did notice almost immediately that her nerve functioning had changed since the last surgery and was affecting her legs (as we have seen!). Unfortunately, that didn't improve after he moved the hardware.  This also explains the bladder issues.  It appears to be permanent, so it's officially a spinal chord injury and allows us to get access to a great outpatient program at Kennedy Krieger in addition to the inpatient rehab.  We are hopeful that they can help improve her functioning.  

The rest of my night will most likely be attending to my girl.  Thanks for praying!

Comments

Sherri said…
Prayers & hugs to your whole family

Popular posts from this blog

Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome

If you happen to pick up the latest Reader's Digest, there is an article in there about Piper Breinholt , a four year old with CCMS.  If you've been around here a while, you'll remember wayyyyyy back when we first received Abby's diagnosis that I was able to speak to Piper's mom, Reagan.  The article is more about their story and not as much about the ins and outs of CCMS, but I think it's probably enough to get some people googling it and I'm hoping a few will end up here. Every once in a while, I give a blog post the title of Cerebrocostomandibular Syndrome so that it would show up in Google.  My ever-present hope is that people will stumble across my blog and 1) be encouraged by the hope we have in Christ, 2) feel a connection with someone in a similar situation as them, or 3) get excited over the miracles that have been performed in Abby's life!!  (a combination of all 3 is great too!)  :)   Notice that it's not to get famous and it never wi

The Potty Man

Caleb LOVES to go potty! I have never heard a potty training story like this one....Caleb tells us when he needs to go, we take his diaper off, and he goes! Now, is it perfect? No, not at all! We aren't trying to potty train at at all, but we figure every time he goes is one less diaper we have to change! The only time we consistantly put him on the potty is when we give him a bath (he always pees in the tub, so we know he needs to go!) He almost always goes on the potty now instead of the tub though. When he's not "really" going potty, he's pretending to go potty! He's such a funny kid!

Lego Party: Favors

I'm a little slow in posting the Lego Party pictures, but I think I have a few excuses I could use.  At any rate, I wanted to share what I did for the party!  It will take a few posts, so stay with me.  I'll start with how I did the favors. These are the goody bags I made.  I just bought solid colored gift bags and matched scrapbook paper to each bag.  Then I punched circles and attached them with the 3D foam tape so that the circles were raised. I used the keychain (explained below) as a name tag on the outside. These are Duplo blocks.  I put a round magnet on the back and...voila!  A magnet!  (note:  hot glue doesn't work so well...I ended up reglueing them with my apoxy because the magnets fell off.) I made crayons using Lego man crayons.  Yes, I know this guy has lost half of his leg.  The others were already packaged and I didn't want to open one up just to get a picture.  I used a Lego mold  to make the crayons.  Caleb put small pieces of crayon in each m