Post-op update

Well, there you have it. The top picture is from today, showing a curve of approximately 32 degrees. The curve on her early August x-ray (bottom) showed around 52 degrees. (Today, though, Dr. Sanders measured close to 70 degrees on one of the curves . . . I guess it depends which curve you're comparing) At any rate, there has been GREAT correction and excellent chest cavity expansion. Dr. Sanders is VERY pleased with the results. We're VERY pleased with his expertise and gifts that he used to help our girl.

The official word is that Sumana grew 3.5 cm. (I thought it would be closer to 2-3 inches!) She goes back for another check up in a month. The next expansion is planned for February. As far as I know, it is an outpatient procedure where they make a small incision and crank up the rods. Also, Sumana asked if she was the oldest patient to receive a VEPTR implant and she found out 'close, but no cigar'. She is the most physically mature patient Dr. Sanders has ever worked on, but there is an 11 year old boy out there that takes the 'oldest' prize.

The not so good news is that Sumana had a really rough day with her lungs. It started before 6 am with coughing and trouble breathing (albuterol nebulizer to the rescue). Thankfully, she got back to sleep and slept til almost 10! Then she had more albuterol and chest PT and we headed out for her regular PT with Miss Kristen. After that we headed to Dr. Sanders (more albuterol inhaler on the way). By the time we were on the road home (3pm) she needed MORE albuterol. When we got home at 5 she was in really bad shape (back to the nebulizer and chest PT).

She was so bad at dinnertime that she couldn't eat or breathe easily. That meant no AWANA. She was sooo upset and crying that her breathing was worse than ever. UGHHH! Poor girl! We barely made it to an 8 pm nebulizer treatment and more chest PT. What a day! I'm sooooo tired of all these treatments, and I'm not on the receiving end!

Bottom line, unless she's much better in the morning, we're off to her primary doctor tomorrow. There really isn't much more we can do to help her. I guess we could start up the middle of the night treatments again, but that's soooo hard on all of us. She also has a PT make-up tomorrow and an occupational therapy evaluation. Unless she's in the hospital, I'm going to do my best to get her to her therapies. She seems weaker than she did right after leaving the hospital. It's a vicious cycle from needing exercise to get stronger body and lungs, but being too sick and weak to do them. UGHHHH!!! So, again, please pray for wisdom for us all in the morning and healing for Sumana's lungs.