Nate’s surgery
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October 19, 2008 at 12:04 am
Well, this has been a long 3 days.
Nate went into surgery 7 a.m. wednesday and did not get done until about 3:30.
That was a little nerve wracking waiting that long.
We finally got to talk to the Doc after he was done. He said that he had to break Nate’s heel bone to lengthen his Achilles tendon, drill holes in some bones, reroute tendons and muscles, graft some tendons and that there were 6 incisions.
He said Nate did just fine and would be going to ICU in about 2 hrs. That was too easy.
We finally got to see him about 6 p.m. He was in a lot of pain.
They had him hooked up to all the monitors, IV’s, catheter, bp cuff, you name it.
They gave him Morphine and he kept falling asleep and not breathing. The nurses kept waking him up to breathe and so was I. It was really creepy watching him do that. I was not surprised though , knowing that his lungs were affected by GBS.
His blood pressure was having a hard time coming back up too from the big amount of anesthesia they gave him.
The next afternoon they moved him out of ICU into PCU after his blood pressure was up enough. Its halfway between ICU and a regular room. You’re still hooked up to monitors so the nurses can watch from the station.
He kept stopping breathing all night, the next day, and the next night too. The second night the nurses noticed his breathing was getting very low at one point so they had to inject him with a drug to reverse the Morphine.
Needless to say, he started breathing better but was in humungous pain by then.
They stopped the Morphine and gave him Percoset which did a little better with his breathing. Then they put him on Oxycontin today in a capsule so he could get rid of his IV.
So far he is ok with everything else except he has a cough. Its ok though as long as he doesn’t get sick.
Today he got transferred to the Rehab Center where he will be an inpatient for 6 to 8 weeks until his leg is ok to put weight on and he can walk on it.
He is very tired and didn’t get much sleep until this afternoon.
I’m very glad the really scary part is over. I just hope nothing else happens and he can get better and walk better.
I’ll keep you updated on how he is doing.
Trudy, Natesmom -
October 19, 2008 at 10:02 am
Sending out Hugs to you and Nate! Tell him good job and keep fighting to get better. Sounds like a long and painful recovery 🙁 . Please keep us updated on his progress. Bestest of wishes and prayers! 🙂
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October 19, 2008 at 3:35 pm
Trudy, thanks for keeping us updated. Sounds like the scary part is now over and Nate can concentrate on getting himself up and walking. Best always.
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October 19, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Hi Trudy,
Glad to hear Nate is doing well. Tell him to stay strong and you guys will be in our prayers..sending cyber hugs your way -
October 20, 2008 at 6:19 am
Hi Trudy! Glad to hear things went well for Nate and will keep him in my prayers for a fast speedy recovery!
Hugs
Linda H -
October 24, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Well, we went to Nate’s Orthopedic Surgeon yesterday to get the wrapping and the plaster splint removed and take our first look at all the stitches.
Yuck, it was gross to look at!
He has 6 incisions of various sizes from 1 to 3 inches in length. The longest one is over his achilles tendon and down under his heel where they lengthened it and broke his heel bone. The next longest one is right over his ankle bone on the inside, and that one looked swollen and red.
He also has one under his big toe to correct his claw toe, on top of his foot where they moved a tendon to the other side of his foot, one on the side of his foot halfway between his little toe and ankle where they put the tendon in with a screw, and one of top of his foot near his big toe. I’m not sure what that one was though.
The doc says he has 2 screws holding tendons that he rerouted in place. Some will dissolve and others will not. He says if it bothers him, he can take it out later.
The doc and his assistant held Nate’s foot very still the whole time they looked at all the stitches for fear that he would move it. The slightest movement could be disastrous.
They immediately redressed the stitches with Iodine tape and wrapped it with cotton and made a fiberglass cast.
One thing all of us noticed immediately though was his foot is straight for the first time in almost 3 yrs!!
Nate likes blue but they were out of blue cast stuff, so they made a black one. Nate already wrote his name on it with red fabric paint, LOL.
I could not believe how quickly that stuff dries. It was a whole 10 minutes.
Nate’s foot is still really sore and throbs anytime its down. I feel his pain. I have had foot surgery too but not that many stitches.
The doc also says no weight bearing until 8 weeks after surgery. That means Nate might be home for Christmas, and might not be either.
Hopefully he will but at least he’s close by this time.
Trudy, Natesmom -
October 24, 2008 at 11:43 pm
congrats on all the good news! you must be so excited for your baby to be healing so well! he sounds like a tough guy:cool:
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October 25, 2008 at 10:30 am
Hey Trudy, you have one tough guy there! Glad to hear of Nate’s progress. Keep up the good work and keep us posted. Best Wishes!
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