The surgery is complete and it ALL went very well! Mom is so grateful for everyone's thoughts, prayers and well-wishes and appreciates your continuing them during his long, difficult recovery over the coming year.
We were all definitely getting restless as it got past 4:00pm even though we knew the surgery could go as late as 8:00pm. When Dr. Goldsmith came out a few minutes after 5:00, we all jumped up to meet him halfway and his demeanor was so different from the morning meeting after the first phase of surgery. This time he was grinning ear to ear, clapped his hands together and said it's a "great correction!" I would be remiss if I left out this part: he also said that we are such a good-looking crew that it's nice to come out to see us and that Mike must really have a great time. And FYI: Dr. G is very easy on the eyes himself.
Here are the details:
- It was a great "correction" - Dad's spine is now totally straight. When he's up and moving around again, his musculature will still lean to the side, but over the coming months that will correct itself to match the straight spine.
- Dad's bone quality is good.
- Dr. G got such an unbelievably good opening during the front part of the surgery, that the back part was less complex.
- The neuro monitoring throughout surgery was normal.
- Dad lost about 900cc of blood and got about half of that back (through cleansing it and reintroducing it) so it's unlikely that he'll need a transfusion.
- Dad was very stable during surgery and is very stable now, so instead of going to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) tonight, he'll instead go to a monitored floor where Mom will spend the night with him.
- Dr. Goldsmith will check on him tomorrow before 7:00am.
Dad was so weak and in so much pain this morning that it was excruciatingly difficult to send him into any surgery, let alone one as utterly complex and invasive as this one. As you might imagine, there was some emotional breaking down after the wonderful news. We are beyond relieved. We are overjoyed.
As I'm finishing this up, Heather noticed the beautiful sun setting on this day.
As I'm finishing this up, Heather noticed the beautiful sun setting on this day.
Mom's Comment: This morning Ashley (our granddaughter) sent Heather a picture of today's glorious sunrise in Austin. Tonight when we saw the beautiful sunset, we felt this had been a sign from our Heavenly Father saying I was with you today, as always, and see, I'm still here.
ReplyDeleteThis is the best news ever! We are praising God for the work He has done through Dr. G and the rest of his team. Our prayers continue as your Dad journeys down the recovery road to Standing Tall! We love your parents very much! They mean the world to us. Please let us know if we can help in any way. Love, Vickie D. and Bill
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Thank you for the update. And thank you, Lord.
ReplyDeleteThere are no words to express the joy I feel! Will keep up the prayers. You are all in our thoughts. Many blessings!!!! Thank you so much for this blog.
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