Annie's Knee and Ankle Surgery

Annie's surgery went well on Friday. It took them about 2 1/2 hours to fix her dislocating kneecap as well as her tight right ankle.

To fix her knee, the doctor lengthened the tendon that was pulling her kneecap out laterally (to the outside of her leg), then he also inserted a donor tissue graft on the other side of her knee (medial side) to act as a tether to help hold her kneecap in place. To do that, they drilled into her kneecap where they placed one end of the tendon, and somehow secured it to the opposite side of her kneecap. The other end of the tendon was secured around a screw that was then screwed into the medial side of her femur. After examining her knee with a scope, they learned that no serious damage has been done by her chronically dislocating kneecap, except for some damage to the lateral side of her femur, but it shouldn't be a source of any kind of pain.

Annie's heel cord lengthening on her ankle was much simpler. The doctor detached the tendon at the bottom and reattached it higher up, so Annie can now bend her foot at a 90 degree angle (something she hasn't been able to do for almost a year!).

Annie was in recovery for about an hour before I was allowed to see her, and then I stayed with her in recovery for another hour. They had some difficulty trying to manage her pain, but she eventually got moved to her room around 1:00. She had received morphine and valium in recovery, but was still in a lot of pain, so around 2pm they gave her morphine on a pump as well as tylenol with codeine. Since then she has been very comfortable and asleep. She woke up for about a half hour to watch The Electric Company, but then fell back asleep. She's been tolerating her feeds well and we quickly bumped her up to her regular rate of 85 cc/hr.

She has a BRIGHT pink cast on her ankle going half way up her calf. Above that she has an immobilizing knee brace (so she can't bend her knee) that goes from the top of her pink cast up almost to her crotch. I haven't seen the incisions, but was told that under her cast, she had a 4" incision on her ankle from her heel cord lengthening. Her knee is wrapped in gauze and an ace bandage under the immobilizing brace, so I haven't seen those incisions yet either, but was told she had a 3" incision on each side of her knee. Pain management is going to be our biggest challenge over the next several days, maybe weeks. She'll need to keep the cast on her ankle for 6 weeks, and the knee brace on (with her knee straight) for 4 weeks.

Annie has been my hero this year as she's tolerated so much. At least her kneecap won't be a source of pain any longer once this is all healed! Thank you so much for all our family and friends who have been such a wonderful support to us. We appreciate all your thoughts and prayers on Annie's behalf.

Annie about 3 hours after getting out of surgery.

Her BRIGHT pink cast!

Three days later, Annie's doing pretty well--just needs her pain meds right on time around the clock!