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We’re home. It’s been a long and tiring day for all of us, but all things considered, it was a good day.
Kellie asked about the details of Griff’s surgery, and I realized that not everyone knows what’s going on. Here’s the short version…
Griff’s always been a toe-walker and because Mike did (does, to some extent) the same thing, we didn’t worry about it. Last fall, Griff’s gifted teacher mentioned she was worried about it because it might signal something else like muscular dystrophy or one of the palsies. So we saw a pediatric neurologist to rule those possibilities out, which we thankfully did. Then, we saw an orthopaedic doctor here in town who suggested that we see a pediatric ortho.
The pediatric ortho is based at All-Children’s Hospital in Tampa/St. Pete, and so we traveled there for a meeting with her. She suggested the surgery as the best option because Griff’s heel cords were already so tight (that’s what’s been causing the toe walking) that one of the other, less invasive treatments probably wouldn’t help.
This morning, in the surgery, the doctor made three tiny incisions in each of Griff’s Achilles tendons forcing a Z pattern into the tendon. Griff’s legs were then positioned with his feet at right angles to his legs and set into short casts. The surgery went well, though the doctor did say that his heel cords were ‘very’ tight.
The Z pattern will allow the tendon to lengthen and stretch. He’ll wear the casts for six weeks, giving his tendons long enough to heal and stretch, and hopefully, giving Griff some time to get accustomed to walking with his heels on the floor.
He came out of the initial anesthesia ok but didn’t go back to sleep. His calf muscles began to spasm from the unfamiliar position, and the poor baby was just in lots of pain.
They gave him an oral pain med and then Valium, and when neither of those helped, they gave him a dose of morphine, which finally put him back to sleep. At that point, they were seriously discussing keeping him overnight.
Once he woke up from the morphine, he was much better, thankfully. A big lunch and a few more pain meds later and they had him up walking with a walker. They asked Griff if he wanted to go home, and he jumped at the chance.
He’s currently watching a really old episode of “Drake and Josh” and waiting for the latest round of meds to put him back to sleep. I expect we’ll keep him pretty well medicated tonight and tomorrow, and we’ll start weaning him from some of the drugs on Saturday.
I was beyond impressed with the staff of the All Children’s Hospital. We were blessed by their professionalism and their dedication to making sure Griff was comfortable. It was one of the nurses who left the room as Griff cried in agony saying, “I’m going to get an auth for some morphine.”
And, as I have been too many times in the past, I was impressed with Griff’s strength and bravery. He’s a remarkably tough kid. I swear he didn’t get that from me.
Filed under Most Everything | Permalink |Tagged with: All Children's • Griff • surgery • toe walking
4 Responses to “Home”
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Go Griff. My brother had a similar problem with the tendons in his foot that didn’t get fixed till he was in high school. Its a rough road but as I find with my oldest who has a ton of health issues, it really does build character.
My son has had several surgeries, so I know how rough it is. I hope he’s feeling well very soon!
Thanks for explaining and the update, Chel.
WHat a trooper Griff is! I will continue to pray for y’all this weekend! Keep us updated!
Thanks for explaining. I wasn’t sure if you didn’t want to explain or if you already had and I missed it.