Late Morning Surgical Update

We've had several updates so far this morning.  Here's how things have progressed:

She went back to the OR at 7:30am and around 9:00am they made the first incision.  Around 10:00am they were still working to get the spine exposed and getting ready to insert the screws.

At 11:30am now, they have 12 screws in her spine, out of about 40 total that she'll receive.  She's being fused from T2 to her pelvis which includes about 16 vertebrae and each vertebrae gets two screws. 

She is currently receiving her first blood transfusion. They expected to give her two units of blood throughout the surgery, and she's already receiving her first.  I was a little surprised to hear that she needed blood this early in the day, but they reassured me that its quite normal around this time.  I guess it's better to stay on top of the blood loss rather than wait until she's more depleted. 

Our medical supplier came to meet us at 9:00am and got Annie's old straight wheelchair seat back installed on her wheelchair frame.  They want to get her sitting up in her chair tomorrow to help prevent pneumonia from setting in.  The medical supplier will come back tomorrow when we get her up to make smaller adjustments to this temporary seat back.

Justin has already had a nap and soon we're going to make a run to the cafeteria for some lunch.  Thank you so much for all the prayers for Annie and her doctors.  Please keep them coming!