Around 1:15 or so, we got a call into the room saying Dr. C. was looking for us. We figured we had another hour, but just as has happened each time before, he’s been out before expected. We headed to the surgical floor and he was waiting for us. He said he had to take L4, there just wasn’t any other way. And he said, “There comes a point where I have to stop beating myself up over it and just do the right thing.” He obviously fought for it; he clearly wanted to preserve L4, but in the end, it just couldn’t be done. He estimated her residual curves at around 35 degrees top and bottom, which is better than 50% correction of her 84/91 degree curves. Remember that the goal was never to perfectly straighten but rather to balance the spine with a secondary goal of her being able to walk around in regular clothing without any noticeable sign of scoliosis. And as he put it, “I could correct her more. And I could paralyze her if I did.” He said her lower hump is completely or almost completely gone. The upper shoulder blade prominence is at least 50% corrected; this shouldn’t be noticeable in regular clothing. The shoulders were markedly lopsided with one higher than the other before surgery, but they should be straight now. There were no spinal cord issues during surgery. She’s also taller, but I’ll stay mum on how much he estimated until we can truly measure. Besides, we might start a betting pool there–how many inches did Titanium Girl grow in 4 hours??
She’ll be receiving at least one of the directed donation units of blood to make sure all her blood counts are good going into recovery and healing. We are so thankful that so many people offered to donate blood for her. And while we’re on that topic, if you didn’t donate for Titanium Girl but still wanted to, the Red Cross always needs blood 😉
Going forward, she’ll be in ICU overnight. She may get up and at least stand this evening, though she’ll need a lot of assistance, because she’s been laying flat in bed for nearly a week. She’s likely to be light headed on the attempt. Then it’s progressing to walking. Lots of walking. The more the better in the coming days. He still anticipates we’ll go home by the end of this week. I’m sure there’s more, but that’s a lot of it.
