Surgery

I thought I would take the time and explain in depth how Claire's surgery went.

After coming to an agreement on Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and Dr. Dormans for her surgery we waited for the chemotherapy rounds to end and we scheduled the date.

Claire's chemotherapy ended early December and after changing the day a few times the surgery was set for December 30th, 2011. We had a few final appointments 72 hours before the day. We had to meet with oncologists, have her blood typed and screen in case of the need for a transfusion, Dr. Dormans and Dr. Chang just to make sure everything was all good, and we had to get a MRA due to the need for the micro vascular repair needed. 

 I was staying with my sister on Fort Dix New Jersey and my friends Sarah and Eva with with Claire and I. In the morning we traveled out Philadelphia and arrived at the wood center and entered the 3rd floor and headed to the surgery reception, there were quite a few people there for it being 6:00AM.

We were called back to the pre-op room where Claire's father accompanied me, since there was only allowed to be two people in the room with her. While back there Claire was examined by the patient care technician, the nurse, the nurse practitioner, the anesthesiologist, a member of the orthopedics team, and Dr. Chang. They finally gave Claire her pre med for anesthesia and then carried her away for surgery at about 9:15am. The procedure didn't start until about 11:45am. Claire surgery entailed removing her cancerous femur and moving her fibula to where the femur was. This is called a Free Vascular Fibula  Graft. The removing of the femur was done in no time which was done by Dr. Dormans, but the micro vascular repair and the moving of the fibula, done by Dr. Chang, took forever.

When Dr. Dormans part finished he came out and explained everything to Claire's father and I. He said the margins looked good and everything went better than expected. Dr. Chang took until about 10:30pm to finish up and he did come out to speak with us as well. They couldn't of asked for it to go better. Claire was finally out of surgery and they were placing her cast then they moved her to the post-op room. We were not taken back to see her until she was in the ICU because she was not awake yet.

My poor little girl looked terrible. She had a modified hip spica cast one, a drain coming out of her cast, hooked up to the cardiac monitor, pulse ox, and was still receiving IV fluids. I was not allowed to pick her up because of everything she was hooked up to.

She was exhausted. She slept the whole night and the next morning I was allowed to hold her and breast fed her as well. She stayed in the ICU for 4 days following surgery and on the night of the 4th day we were moved to a regular room on the orthopedics floor. During the 4 days in ICU she was slowing taken off all the monitors and IV fluids. She was given an aspirin and zantec once a day for a month after the surgery. On the 5th day we were discharged and allowed to go home. I had my sister and her husband come get us from the hospital and we stayed at their house in New Jersey for a day just in case anything went wrong while going home.

It was a terribly long process and Claire still remains in her hip spica cast right now. Hopefully during our next trip to philly it will be removed and she will be fitted for a brace instead.

I am thankful for the entire team out in Children's Hospital of Philadelphia for saving my daughters leg. We had so many people tell us that she would not be able to keep her leg and that was not an option for me. I am more than happy with the choice I made for her surgery and just can't wait to have her cast removed!

_-_Courtney_-_