November 16, 2009 - where's the arch??

I didn't update anything yesterday because I truly didn't have anything positive to say. We all seemed to wake up on the wrong side of the bed (or couch). We all missed going to church. We all felt tired, run down and a little short with each other. Sadie continued to deal with a high amount of pain in her left knee and we realized we had made no plan for the week ahead (Total blessing that Billy is home, yet we still feel we could use more bodies to get to all the places and do all that needs to be done). I really had nothing positive to say.

Sadie has struggled to sleep the last few nights (4 nights) and last night was the first time she wasn't staring at the wall until past midnight; we all needed the rest, especially her, rest does the body good. Today I decided I needed a better understanding on how long Sadie should be feeling a high level of pain. When I called and talked to Dr. M's nurse she decided it might be best to see Sadie today. So, off to Children's we went this afternoon.

First, her left knee: This has been the most painful area; on a pain scale of 0-10 (0=no pain/10=most pain you have ever felt) she often still reports pain of 6 or more. Dr. M looked at her knee and felt that the swelling that is present was within normal range and that the incisions sites looked good. He said that they did a ton of work on that knee and it is generally just a very painful surgery. Dr. M feels that within a week (of today's visit, this I confirmed) she should turn a corner and start really feeling well again.

I can't remember if I ever explained this surgery very well; I tried to find something online that could explain it better than I can, but wasn't successful. I know that I covered a bit about why the surgery was needed and how it was found it was needed now when I talked about the day before. The surgery is done by four incisions made around the knee, two above and two below. Through those incisions they take a drill and drill into the growth plate several times at each location. This causes any soft growth plate to create a void within itself in which the void will turn to bone (the bodies way of healing). However, there is no way to know if the place they are drilling is in soft growth plate or into bone so they do this over and over again. The pain that Sadie is experiencing is from damaged bone.

Next the right ankle: Dr. M decided that she could take her cast off today; so that was removed and for the first time we got to see the "small" incision that was made in order to clean out her ankle.

For some reason I don't look at this and think small!

Sadie will be in a "walking boot" with limitation of no weight bearing for the next 3 weeks. On week 4-5-6 post surgery she can start to put weight on her foot as she can tolerate. By week 7-8 she should be feeling the results of surgery and prayerfully she will be feeling relief from the pain that caused the surgery in the first place.

As you can see Sadie's foot is quite swollen still; hence the comment where's the arch?

Lastly, other changes: they have changes Sadie's pain medications in hope that her pain medications were part of the reason that she wasn't able to sleep. Time will tell as we quickly approach bed time.

All and all: it was a good appointment, no infection or issues with the surgery sites. Obviously we don't want her in pain, but we now at least know how long to expect this and that there is a goal to look forward too, that turning point! I thank you all for your continued prayer for her recovery, healing and for her spirit. At this point she has doctors order to say put and let the knee heal so we will be keeping her home.