Caden came off oxygen during the day on Sunday 11/11/12. That was exactly one week after being discharged from his 8-day hospital stay at MUSC. Now that he is well we have to turn our attention to his back. Caden has VEPTR rods (adjustable Titanium rods) implanted in his back to treat scoliosis. These rod have to be adjusted or lengthened every 6-9 months as Caden grows.
Today was the pre-op appointment for the VEPTR rod adjustment. The anesthesiologist who reviewed Caden’s record in preparation for the surgery raised concerns about whether he was ready for anesthesia given the fact that he was recovering from a recent pneumonia. Sherry received a call from them a few days ago because they were wanting to postpone surgery based on what they were reading in Caden’s chart. The said they would like for him to be cleared by cardiology before surgery as well. Sherry and I both felt like they should at least see Caden before making a decision to postpone. They agreed and I took Caden in today to see them as well as the orthopedics surgeon. The orthopedics surgeon was blown away by how good Caden was doing today. He said that he expected to see a very sick looking child given what Caden has recently been through and given the fact that the xray of Caden’s back showed that his left lung had not cleared up yet. I think the surgeon’s words were, “That is not the kid I expected to find in this room based on his xray.” Caden on his knees playing with a toy and was VERY animated and enjoying himself when the surgeon came in. It is typical for xrays to lag behind clinical observations by several weeks when recovering from pneumonia so this was not that big of a surprise to us.
So the surgeon sent us to anesthesiologist for a pre-op visit. This is standard operating procedure and we have done it a few dozen times over the years for both inpatient and outpatient surgeries. This time as usual we had an anesthesiologist that we had never seen before who was only familiar with Caden based on his chart. Unfortunately the chart’s most recent entries were from his hospital stay cause by pneumonia. It was very evident to me that there were some strong opinions filtering through from the Infectious Disease clinic who was consulted during his recent stay. The anesthesiologist basically got a point where he wanted to consult cardiology before signing off on this surgery. I asked him to do that on the spot as Sherry recommended that they do several days ago. The anesthesiologist agreed and called Caden’s cardiologist on the spot. Before the call I recommended that he ask for an echo-cardiogram today if they could swing it and that would give them the objective data to decide how to proceed. Caden’s cardiologist agreed and we proceeded up to the 6th floor of the Children’s Hospital to the cardiology clinic. Caden was due a six-month cardiology check-up anyway so this visit fulfilled that appointment as well. In the end the cardiologist said Caden was in as good of health as the last time he saw him and said from a heart perspective that there was nothing preventing the back surgery from going forward. The cardiologist called the anesthesiologist and they all agreed that Caden could get his VEPTR rod adjustment on Wednesday.
So the back surgery is a go for this Wednesday November 14, 2012. We expect Caden to only be in for 1-2 nights.
Prayer:
- Praise God for Caden’s recovery from the pneumonia
- Pray for protection over his health as we lead up to this surgery
- Pray for an uneventful surgery and hospital recovery
- Pray for protection over the emotions and attitudes of Riley, Josiah, and Levi
- Pray for Sherry and I as we navigate the next week or so