Surgery Day

   

      Our little trooper did great!  When Jessica went in for surgery at 9am, we had a chance to speak with the Surgeon.  He renenforced to us that the progression of Jessica's spine in such a short time was very rare especially due to her young age and that surgery is the best and really the only option for her.  Since we had seen him last(6 months ago) Jessica's back has curved yet another 7 degrees making it a total of 115 degrees.  The Dr. said that it would keep getting worse until it put pressure on her heart which would make it stop.

     The anaesthetist and the rest of the team got Jessica prepared and the surgeon started surgery at noon.  We didn't see him again until 6pm at which time he told us everything went great and that he was very happy with the surgery!!  He told us that Jessica's spine was flexible but not as much as he would have liked so he had to put the Halo on her head and put her in traction for the duration of the surgery.  That entailed putting screws in her skull and femur and connecting the contraption between them straightening her spine.  That made placement much easier.  The rods themselves were attached at the top of the spine right down to the bottom.  The curve in the spine at "the apex"(worse part of the curve) was pulled into the rods in the middle using cables.  The resulting curve is at around 20 degrees which is amazing as the Dr. mentioned he would probably only get in the neighbourhood of 30-35 degrees.

     Here is our little girl hooked up and wired for sound!  The surgeon wants to leave her sedated for the night and the ventilator is breathing for her at this point.  They will reduce the medication slowly tomorrow morning and once she is breathing on her own, they will take her off the ventilator.  We can expect to be in the Hospital for approx 7-10 days all depending on her pain and recovery in general.