Eliza has another surgery behind her

On December 26, all 4 of us flew to Minneapolis for Eliza's final round of appointments and surgery at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare. Though this trip isn't really for anything fun, and Minnesota isn't exactly a balmy, tropical winter vacation destination, we appreciate the fact that we are all going together as a family. Most important, this is a final important step in bringing Eliza greater health, mobility, and quality of life. 

The morning of December 27 began very early with an appointment in the gait lab. This was Eliza's third gait analysis in the past 4 years. During the lab, physical therapists do an exam of her lower extremities including measurements of her joint mobility. Then she is videoed while walking and running across a room with sensors built into the floor. Next, reflectors are glued on her joints and other parts of her body that interact with high motion cameras, capturing an accurate animation of her that can be analyzed for her specific movements and skeletal alignment. 

Later in the afternoon we met with Dr Novacheck. He has been Eliza's doctor since our first visit

to Gillette in the summer of 2014 and has done all of her surgeries. We trust him and appreciate his vast knowledge of gait abnormalities and how to correct them, his kindness, and his genuine care of Eliza and our family. In the appointment we reviewed the data collected at all three gait analyses and saw the huge improvement in Eliza's gait and alignment. We reflected together on her journey, acknowledged the difficult road it has been and the extensive surgeries and recoveries that got her to where she is today. He is pleased with her progress and so are we. As I stated in my last blog post, she has come through such painful and difficult challenges and ended up better than we ever hoped. Her joints will always have the potential of being painful and problematic and she's at a higher risk of injury than the average person due to the ligament laxity, but the surgical correction of her condition allows her to be active and staying strong and fit should keep her quality of life high and risks for joint problems lower.

I forgot to take a picture of Dr. Novacheck and Eliza this trip, but here is one from a follow up visit to Gillette after her last surgery. 

On December 28, we headed back to Gillette, this time for the hardware removal.  After her last surgery, plates and screws held her femurs together while they healed and it was time for those to come out.  Though this third surgery was minor compared to the last two, surgery is never fun.  Thankfully, everything went well and within an hour or so, she was back in her hospital room for recovery.   

Though her face tells a different story in these pictures, I really do think Eliza was happy to have her parents and older sister by her side before and after surgery. 

This time, there are no hip to toe casts, just ace wraps to help keep her incisions protected and give her legs some compression in the first day of recovery. 

By 3:00 in the afternoon, Eliza was doing well enough to be discharged.  We made it back to the hotel with no difficulty and Eliza was able to slowly walk with crutches to our room.  Today our focus is on pain management.  It's difficult to keep her down, but oozing incisions have put her on forced bed rest for the rest of today after a phone call to the nurse.  We know she has a few difficult days ahead, especially a day of travel, but she is already doing so well that we trust her recovery will be smooth.