another surgery

We headed back to Shriner’s today, we were just here yesterday! Carter’s here for a surgery, to remove all the hardware from his left hip and then to have dye injected to get a better idea of how the hip looks.

He was happy to see the fish tank again. 

And the chipmunks.

Just the clinics are downstairs, so today we went upstairs to where the operating rooms are. Shriner’s has such awesome toys for the kids to play with. It feels more like a home than a hospital.

There’s this massive recreation room that has so many fun things!

It’s strange now to see him crawl, since the last couple of weeks he pretty much just walks.

He’s not a fan of stuff on his legs. He pulled off his hospital bands.

He did think it was pretty cool that his hospital bed could move.

He has his cow and duck to take into surgery with him and he’s a little loopy here with drugs. It helps him to be calm when he enters the OR. I got a picture of what his left hip with scar looks like now, so I can compare it to the new incision.

You can hardly see Carter, but the Anesthesiologist is holding him and just about to enter the OR. I don’t think I’ll ever quite get over the feeling of seeing my baby enter an OR. I don’t know what is going through his little mind, but at least he’s drugged already. It’s hard not to worry, even though this surgery is more minor than his other ones. He’s such an interesting case, so I never know what to expect. Plus, I get flashbacks to when I went in the OR and went through all my surgeries and it’s breaking my heart he has to go through the same thing. I’d say there’s some personal guilt for me, since we all know it’s my hip genes he got. I wish I could go through it for him, poor baby. I cried a little as he went back, I think I do each time.

The doctor talked to me after his surgery, that lasted around an hour or so. She said the hardware is all out and that his hip is in, but not as deep as they’d like it to be. The dye showed that there seems to be a lot of scar tissue blocking the ball from being deeper in the socket. Another issue is that his ball is larger than normal. Most kids hip ball is the size of 1 golf ball and his is the size of 1 1/2 golf balls. The good news is the ball used to be way smaller and not growing, so at least he’s had growth. The hard part is that with the ball even bigger, it makes it that much harder for the socket to fit it as well. He will likely need another surgery when he’s 3 years old to help with socket issues and remove all the scar tissue. She wants to wait rather than do that all now because it’s nicer for their bones to be a little bigger and pluse he’d have to be in a body cast right now. Since he barely learned how to walk and has pretty small muscles, she would like him to be cast free and who knows, sometimes the pressure from walking actually helps the bone ware down th scar tissue, so I’m curious to see how the next x-ray looks. She worries that doing that surgery now could actually cause more issues, since his bones are finally growing and casts can interfere with growth. I’m really happy about her decision. She even talked it over with a long time doctor who was with her in the OR for his first surgery and she thought that was the right choice, too. So we should have a year off before it all starts again. For now he’s cast and hardware free. All we have to worry about is his incision healing. I forgot to mention yesterday that his left leg/foot rotates away from his body and makes his walking kind of funny (limping quiet a bit) looking. She said that’s partly from her, because she positioned his hip that way, since it’s more likely to stay in rather than when it’s turned inward. She also said how upset he was when he woke up from surgery with her. If only who knew what a huge help and blessing she is in his life. Laun and I love that doctor so much that it makes us emotional. What a saint she’s been in his life and ours, an answer to our prayers! Plus, the drugs make you a little crazy when you wake up from surgery.

His x-rays:

It’s sure great to see that hardware out! The doctor said they heal quick at this age, so it should take around 3 weeks for the holes to fill in from where the screws were.

Here’s his hardware. I’ve kept mine from my surgeries, too, so there’s quite a collection. I’d love to know what the hardware alone costs, cast changes alone (not even surgeries are areound $12,000, since he’s put to sleep).

Since he’s been fasting for surgery, he woke up with an appetite. He chomped down a popsicle before I even saw him. Then I fed him 2 bags of goldfish, an apple juice, a little apple sauce and a yogurt!

All’s right in his world again. Full tummy and he found his belly button.

He fell asleep on the way home and napped even longer in his play pen. When the boys got home from school they wanted to know if Carter’s hip was in and how it went. Sweet Porter entertained him with the ipad for a bit. Carter will stay on medicine for the next while.

Laun got the kids all out the door and to school this morning while I took Carter. He was happy to see Carter when he got home from work. He took Porter to the store because he needed to get out. He came home with flowers and chocolate covered mangos that he had Carter hand me for taking such good care of him after his surgery. It was so thoughtful and sweet and really brightened my day.

Carter really liked smelling the flowers, love that boy!

This picture doesn’t show it too well, but his leg is a strange color from the cleaner they use and you can see that his hip is covered with a huge bandaid. I’m curious in a couple days to see how the incision looks. What a trooper this boy has been. I’m so thankful for all the answered prayers today.