No needles required!

Wooo-hooo! No pre-op testing is needed for Sumana's VEPTR lengthening! She is one happy girl! (No needles!!!) She still has the nerve testing and her regular pulmonary follow-up next week, but that's it!

It was quite a 3-ring circus at Dr. Sander's office today. I think he must have been cramming in lots of patients today so he can leave for Haiti tonight. He came in to check Sumana's new x-rays, then left so a tech could come in and do pulse and blood pressure, then his nurse practitioner, Suzanne, came in to do health history and a physical. THEN, Dr. Sanders' resident came in to go over the consent for surgery. Finally, Dr. Sanders came in again with another medical student and gave his dictation note about to Sumana while talking to me. Though it sounds chaotic, I think everything got done rather efficiently.

The bummer, though, was that we didn't get a lot of Dr. Sander's time. I found out most answers of questions from the resident and the NP. This is what is planned for Feb. 10: 1-hour surgery, with 2 small incisions over the lengthening part of the VEPTR and then 1 night in the hospital. Sumana is starting to lean again, which Dr. Sanders says means he should be able to get a good amount of lengthening. He said it also means it's TIME to lengthen the rods.

Dr. Sanders is being very cautious after Sumana's 'performance' following the last surgery. He is concerned about her lungs, primarily, but also said there is a risk of the rods breaking or even ribs breaking during the lengthening process. Yikes!! That would complicate things quite a bit. Please pray that everything goes smoothly and that these complications don't factor in to Sumana's surgery.

As we were leaving, Dr. Sanders asked us to make an apppointment for 3-4 weeks after her surgery. However, one of the secretaries let us know that he will be in Haiti AGAIN in March for TWO WEEKS! So, factor in his time off and our proposed vacation to NC in March and we couldn't get a date til the end of March! So, I asked them to schedule her for two weeks post-op. It's a little soon, but I feel better about that instead of waiting 6+ weeks!