No More Knee Caps!

Surgery went smoothly.  It ended up being only 3 hours since they didn't need to do any quad lengthening after all.  All of Annie's tendons and tissues came back together nicely to close up the area where her patellas were.

The doctor was so surprised at seeing the condition of Annie's left knee that he actually took a picture of it on his phone, all clamped open to show the bones.  It was so interesting that I asked him to email it to me, since I want to be able to see it on a larger screen.  (I haven't gotten it yet, but will post it as soon as I get it from him.)

The place where her knee cap had been sitting in its dislocated position had literally worn out a crater in her bone.  The doctor said her knees looked like those of an 80 year old woman with arthritis, and said there's no wonder why her knees were SO painful for her! 

Annie did great in recovery and didn't require CPAP support, or even oxygen!--most likely because she wasn't on the heavy narcotics this time.  The doctor is optimistic about her eventual flexibility and ROM which we've been concerned about. 

Annie is now settled in her hospital room, but has been in a lot of pain since coming out of recovery, even with the epidural still in place.  They gave her a bolus and increased her rate, and are ordering narcotics for her now too.  We'll keep the epidural in place until tomorrow and then see how she does.  She's a sad little girl, but hopefully she'll be feeling better soon and have some happy knees!

Our sad, little trooper.  More pain meds are on their way!  Annie will keep these knee immobilizers on for 4-6 weeks.