January 9, 2019 "Surgical x-rays-Day 1 after surgery"

Wednesday, January 9, 2019 The nurses continued to wake Rayden and myself throughout the night to get vitals, and give him round the clock pain meds. I was pleased they didn't try to change his diaper or move him like the other nurse said. They let him get as much rest as they could. He was up and asking for his ipad about 5:30am. I ordered him some pancakes but he wouldn't eat a thing! I knew he wouldn't eat with that IV still in, so they disconnected it but left it in his arm in case he still needed pain meds. He was still in so much pain. We changed his diaper again about 6am. He didn't tolerate it any better this time either. It took three people this time, and the nurse wanted to put a chuck under him to help roll him. This was excruciating for him!! I can't even put it into words. Rayden could not tolerate anybody touching him and rolling him around onto the hips he just had reconstructed!!! I can only imagine the pain he was feeling and it was killing me to see him like this.
Around 7:30 Dr. Vergun and her intern came into the room. She didn't want us to try his potty system today because of his pain level. No one wants him to get backed up but we don't want him in agony either. Maybe two days with no poop would be ok. (Keep in mind Rayden has neurogenic bladder and bowel.) She explained the surgery again but this time she had x-ray images to share. It really made things much clearer for us.

1. This first image is BEFORE surgery. You can see the femur (leg bone) is straight with a dot on the top. This dot is the ball. His leg is shaped like an 'i' but it should be shaped like an upside down 'L'. The ball should be inside the 'V' shaped hole (socket). The 'V' shaped hole should actually be 'C' shaped. What a challenge!

2. She cut the femur with a saw and turned the portion she cut into the "V" shaped socket. Then she rotated the femur so it was straight, 15% NOT 60% inward, and attached it to the portion she cut off with a plate and four screws. 

3. In this third image she was checking the placement of the ball and socket. It is taken from the side so you can see the outside of the plate down his leg. 

4. In this image you can see where she grafted bone from his upper pelvis and reconstructed his socket that was 'V' shaped and made it 'C' shaped wrapping the ball correctly. 

Around 8:30 Alex arrived and was able to get Rayden to eat some home fries but nothing else. He will do anything for his brother. Soon Courtney, the physical therapist, came wanting us to get him out of the bed. I thought she was crazy! He couldn't even tolerate us rotating him to change his diaper and this woman wanted me to pick him UP OUT of the bed!!! 9:30 I bucked it as long as I could but soon she showed up with a little wheelchair saying it was time. She wanted me to put one arm under his shoulder blades and the other under his knees and lift him straight up, rotate my body and lower him into the chair. Keep in mind that he still has a purple foam pillow velcroed to between his legs too. Michael and everyone else left. They knew this was going to be bad. Rayden began crying immediately. I think he was scared of the chair. 

Of course, I had to be strong for Rayden so I tried. He was alright when I put my arms behind his shoulders but when I placed my other arm under his knees he started screaming. This scream sent chills through my body and I just fell to the floor laying my head on his bed and cried saying "I can't do it!" Courtney encouraged me to get up and try again. I had to be strong for Rayden. If he was going to get better SOMEBODY had to help him out of this bed. I got myself together and tried again. This time I was able to transfer him into the chair. Once I sat him down he stopped screaming and wanted Alex to push him around. I knew then that he was going to be ok. We took him down the hall to play the Wii for a while then rolled him into the play room. 

He wanted to look at things but he would not lift his arms to play with anything. He acted as if he were paralyzed. It didn't take me long to realize he wouldn't use his arms because he had tape on them. (He HATES tape.) No matter how much we encouraged him to use them, he could still SEE the tape and refused. When I saw the music room in the corner I knew this would make him happy and he may actually use his arms. The entire family got an instrument and we made happy music. Rayden played the xylophone a little. You can see on his face that he was still in pain but he sure tried, and we actually got a smile or two.  

We played for about an hour and then took him back to the room to try to eat something. Of course he didn't want anything to eat. This was beginning to worry me. I realized he only had one bandage on his right arm so I took that one off so maybe he would start using it. After his nap I transferred him back into the bed. Yes, this was very, very painful for him but with every transfer it will get better. 

Around 5:00 he started asking for Legos. Alex and Michael went down to the play room and brought him some back. He began to play using his right arm and we got our first genuine smile!! While they were in the play room they saw a target shooting game and asked if he could play with that too. The lady in charge told Alex he could have that because they couldn't keep toy guns in the hospital. Rayden really enjoyed shooting the target. He even started laughing! 

 

Throughout the day we continued to monitor his pain level and tried to get him to eat anything!! Finally Papa thought he might eat some Vienna sausages. (He will eat them when he won't eat anything else.) Michael and Alex went down to the little drug store inside the hospital and got him some. He actually ate four of those sausages. Maybe things are looking up. When Rayden only had casts he hated to look at them so we kept socks over them. Now that he has bandages, pillow, and casts he screams every time we take off the blanket to move him. As long as we keep the blanket over him he seems to tolerate it fine.