A Change of Plans: More Surgery on Friday

Dr. Hasley, our orthopedic surgeon, came by early this morning and said as he was driving home last night he was re-considering what he had told me after Annie's surgery last night.  And then he woke up again in the night thinking about Annie and he strongly feels like he needs to go in to do another washing out of her back on Friday.

He originally didn't think he'd need to since he was pleasantly surprised that he only found 30cc of pus instead of 200cc like he was expecting, so he felt optimistic last night that a second surgery wouldn't be needed, but after considering that the tissues were oozing a little pus as he was closing her up, he thinks its best to go in again to clean her out and re-check the bone grafts that are still in there.

He also was looking at her CT scan from earlier this week when they were checking for GI issues, and he noticed on it that a couple screws in her back may have penetrated too far through the front of the vertebrae.  So Annie will go for another CT scan today so he can get a closer look at the depth of all the screws and while he's got her opened up again on Friday, he'll remove any screws that are too long.  The risk is that a screw that is too long could potentially rub up against her aorta and cause problems.  And while she's back in the OR, the tentative plan is to put her central line in then as well.

We're grateful for what a great doctor Dr. Hasley is!  It's wonderful knowing that he is thinking of her, even when he's not at work, and is looking out for her and trying to make sure he takes good care of her.  While we're not excited about yet another surgery, we feel good about him going in again to be more thorough about getting it all cleaned out.  We know that's the most important part of getting rid of this infection.  In some ways, treating this type of infection is like treating a cancerous tumor--the best way to help eliminate it is by surgically removing as much as possible, and then using drugs to treat what what couldn't be physically removed.

Annie is surprising everyone again with how well she is doing.  She has only received two doses of hycet for pain in the last 12 hours!  And she hasn't been crying or fussing at all!  She has vomited a fair amount of bile this morning though.  We plan to very gradually start her on pedialyte this morning and see how she does.  She's been having a few more seizures than normal last night and this morning, but nothing too concerning yet. The drain coming out of her back is collecting about 60cc every 4 hours, so that's slowed down from last night. Her latest blood culture is so far negative, as well as the fluid culture from Sunday, but both of those will continue to be watched as they begin the transition to her long-term IV meds later this week.