Surgery Update

I am finally sitting down to post an update on Callie's surgery today. Sorry to all of the people I told I will text when I post (I did not want to text you at 10:45pm).

We arrived at Gillette around 9:30 and were taken straight back to pre-opp. Surgery was scheduled to start at 11:15. They did take her back pretty close to scheduled time. It took them about an hour and a half to get her all set up. She had an IV, Central line (similar to a PIC line - a catheter placed into a large vein in the neck), arterial line (thin catheter inserted into an artery for blood pressures) and  spinal monitoring. The spinal monitoring is what took the longest as they put a bunch of small pin like monitors all over her body. This allows them to monitor her spinal cord functionality while operating on her spinal cord. Once they call all the line and monitors set up she was ready to go.

The first surgery was a Foramen magnum decompression which is a next surgery to allow her spinal cord to have more room. After about a half hour the doctor was already out to talk to us about her neck. He said she did Great. He removed a small piece of bone from her skull at the bottom to allow her spinal cord room. He said was about 1millimeter by 1 millimeter in size. He also said that her spinal cord was about 50% compressed which was very similar to Zak's. The difference in the two kids was that Zak's neck was unstable and needed to be fused to create stability where Callie's was still stable. He will continue to follow Callie as she grows to watch how her vertebrae grow and develop in case she every would need additional surgeries.

The second surgery was a bit more tricky. She had Posterior Cranial Vault Remodeling for Craniosynostosis (Skull was not growing so there was no room for the brain to keep growing) They made a cut from ear to ear over the top of her head. They had to remove the back section of her skull and move it outward to allow for room for her brain to grow. She had severe imprints from her brain into the skull. The inside of the skull should be nice and smooth, which hers was not. The doctor even mentioned this was one of the most sever cases he has seen with the imprints on her skull. The surgery did go well which we are very grateful for.

The doctors decided to leave Callie intubated (breathing tube still in place) for the night as she has sleep apnea and thought it would be best to let the machine breath for her for a while. When we first saw her she was not to swollen, however several hours latter she sure is swelling up with is very common and part of the healing process. They are talking about pulling the tube in the morning and seeing how she is doing.

The staff is absolutely amazing here. They do such a great job to explain everything to us. They area all so helpful and caring. We truly are in great hands!

We appreciate all of the prayers though the day and days leading up to surgery. We continue to ask for prayers as Callie recovers through the week. She will be in the ICU for 2 nights and then on the neuro floor for 3-4 nights.

Mom and Dad are holding up good. Just glad to be through day 1 as it is a long day. Since she was stable and in the ICU in great hands we decided to go out for dinner as the rest of the nights I am sure we will be by her bed side.

I will continue to post updates daily as we are in the hospital. Hopefully sooner in the day than today :)