Sunday, October 26, 2014

Finger Surgery

Ok so surgery details and updates!

My little lucky fin had his first hand surgery on Thursday (10/23/14) on his left hand.

This is what it looked like going into surgery. This way you can visualize it as I try to explain all that they worked on. 



As you can see the pointer finger and the pinkie finger both still had bands around the tops. People often question what I mean when I say he still had bands, so here it is. The bands are still technically active due to the fact that as he grows, the bands to not and would eventually amputate the tips of his fingers. At least this is my understanding. So because of this, the bands needed to be cut and released so this would not happen. The doctor went in and did what is called a "Z-stitch" which means exactly what it sounds like, they stitch up his finger in the pattern of a Z. 

Next. The middle finger and ring finger were fused together as you can see above. The doctor split the two and did a Z-stitch on the middle finger as well and tried to make it "less bulbly" as the doc put it as well as removing the little bundle of skin. 

We went in bright and early at 6 am that morning and waiting until 8:50 for him to be taken back for surgery. He was starving and exhausted to say the least but he made it through. The nurse was awesome and came out a few times to give us updates on how he was doing. Each time was a positive report! 

We waited what seemed to be forever and around 10:40 the doctor came out and told us the good news, that he was done and was able to accomplish everything he had wanted! We could see our little man in just a little bit but had to wait for them to cast his hand. 

When we got back there he was not happy :( It's so hard seeing your baby. Your one year old baby hooked up to all sorts of machines, screaming because he's hungry but his throat had a breathing tube down it during surgery so it's all scratchy and dry. It's rough to see. And then when you get to hold him, to finally hold that precious child and he calms down while he eats but still isn't happy... That sucks. They ended up having to give him some more Valium because he wouldn't calm down. Needless to say he slept after that while we tried to get his stats stabilized. That took about 2 hours before we could leave the recovery room and go back down to our room that we were in that morning. Little man seemed to just sleep all day but when he was awake he was happy! It was precious :) Our good friend Joe decided to stop by with some coffee which was great! We spent the rest of the afternoon debating whether or not to stay over night to monitor his stats or not (it was his breathing.) After a lot of deliberation we decided it was safe to go home! We ended up leaving around 4:45 to finally go home! Jude did relatively well his first night with a cast, woke up a few times but went back to sleep. And ever since surgery he has been so cuddly and just wants to be held! So cute and this mommy loves it! 

Since being home we have had some big adjustments. Things people don't warn you about and you don't think about. You think of all the normal things such as pain levels, not being able to use that hand, hitting things with his cast, etc. But what you don't think about is how will he crawl on the tile? Will he hold a bottle? How about holding his food pouches without them falling? Also, the pain meds mess with my baby! I hate giving it to him but how can I not when he just had surgery and is in pain. I'm just gonna say it: having a baby in a cast, sucks. So there it is, although I am SO grateful that he pulled through and he is a strong little boy and will do just fine, as a mom I hate seeing it. I hate knowing that he is only cuddling because he is in pain and doesn't feel well. Things that I can't necessarily control. 

Anyway, I'm done and now onto some pictures from the big day! 


This picture was taken after the extra dose of Valium to help him calm down in the recovery room.



Wagon ride to keep the little man entertained while we wait to go home!


Cuddling with mommy :)


And his cool new camo cast and eating a popsicle to help his throat! 


He will have his cast until November 13 at least and then we will figure out the next surgery for his right hand. 



Have A Blessed Day! 

So much going on!

I hate not having a computer charger! Can't write enough and then I feel like all my posts are so long! So I will do a quick update here and then have another post for surgery :)


As most of you know, Jude turned 1 on the 19th! I was proud of myself and kept it together quite nicely. We had a sports themed birthday party for him and all friends and family were there to celebrate. It was quite nice :) Below are some pictures of his big day! We got a jersey made for him to wear on his birthday and it turned out really well!


We had his birthday at our clubhouse and they put this on the welcome sign! Loved driving up to see this :)



A very uneventful cake smash lol. He seemed to have no interest in the cupcake at all! Oh well, I'll be happy if he isn't a fan of sugary things! 




Showing off his new boots that he got! 




His special jersey :)


We had a blast at his birthday and are so grateful for everyone that was able to come and celebrate with us! Thank you and we can't wait for more birthdays to come! 


Have a Blessed Day

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Almost ONE, here we come!

Holy cow time does fly by! I can't believe my little man will be one in a week! ONE! How is this possible? It seems like just last week we were off and running to the hospital because I was in labor. It seems like just yesterday I was holding him for the first time, hearing him cry and needing to be loved and cuddled. Now my little man is off and running! He started walking a few weeks ago and doesn't ever seem to have time to stop moving. As I read back over that it seems about though he is walking consistently but he's not, just a fast crawler and a soon to be runner ;) 

He is progressing like every child around his age too. He can pick things up with no problems, he can walk like I said and nothing stops him. I'm so proud to see him accomplish so much at such a young age! I knew to never put limits on him, simply saying that he wouldn't be able to do something but in the back of my mind I did think that it would take some extra time. I honestly thought that he would be a late walker considering he is missing all toes on one of his feet. He proved me wrong to say the least! I also thought that grabbing toys or something small like a Cheerio would take some extra time as well, yet he has been doing that for months now! I can't wait to see what else he proves me wrong with ;)

Surgery update:

I think I had said in the past that he would hopefully have his hand surgeries when he turned one and we are still hoping for that! We had an appointment at Shriners for the surgeon to take a look and see when it would be possible to start the surgeries and they said they are hoping to get us in on October 23! I had been praying it would be after his first birthday so he wouldn't have a cast and I think that's what will happen! We are still waiting to get the confirmation call but I think that will come this week as well as a pre-op appointment and then surgery will be a week from Thursday! 

Now... I'm going to try and explain what they will do to his hands so hopefully you can follow along :)

They will start with his left hand. See the picture below so you can understand easier what they will do. 


First, there are bands around his pointer and pinkie finger. They will go in and release the bands, this way when he grows, they bands wont grow. Meaning. As he grows and gets older, if the bands are not released they could eventually amputate his finger from the band up. So they will go in and cut the band and create a "Z" stitch which basically looks like Charlie Browns sweater or, a Z :) Next they will go and separate the ring finger and middle finger. There is more than enough skin for them to accomplish this with no problem. After that they will release the band that is wrapped around his middle finger and try to make it less of a bulb. There's a term for it that I can't remember, but his middle finger will always have the bulb as it is part of ABS. But, they will try and make it less so it is easier for him to function. That will all happen within on surgery and then he will be in a full cast called a club cast. This means that the cast will completely cover his hand and fingers and go all the way up to his shoulder. He will be in the cast for roughly 4 weeks while everything heals up. 

Next one



Now to me, I always thought this hand would only need one surgery and if anything his left hand would need more than one but I was wrong. Goes to show how much I actually know! Ha. So his right hand will need to separate surgeries unfortunately. The reason being is that they can only operate on one side of the finger each time so if the hand needs fixing on both sides of the finger it must be separate surgeries. So this one they will separate the pinkie and ring finger, hoping to keep the pinkie tip but there are no guarantees that they can do that depending on how the tip gets the blood flow. He will then be in the same type of cast, they club cast for roughly 4 weeks as well and then go back in, once it is 100% healed for the next step which is just making a cut between his ring finger and middle finger. It is more webbed than we thought and so they will make it less webbed so he can use his fingers better. He will be in the same cast for the same amount of time. 


To say we have a long road ahead is an understatement but we are ready. Having his first surgery on his foot back in the summer really helped prepare me for what is to come. These surgeries will be around 2-2.5 hours so it is much longer than his foot but I think we are ready. Personally, I am ready because I want to see how he grows and functions when his fingers are separated and he can use them better. I'm nervous and excited all at the same time. I know he will be amazing and pull through like a champ :)  


Now for some cute pictures over the past few weeks :) 


We took a shopping trip with some friends down to Ikea. Well we had to get quite a few big items and we had 2 kids, 1 stroller and this flat cart. Jude is a little older and so we put him on the cart like this and wheeled him around Ikea. He loved it! 


We went on a bike ride and I happened to grab his rain coat incase it started to rain... Needless to say it did and we got wet. At least I got a cute picture out of it! 


This is one of my favorite pictures. This is our friend Justin sitting with Jude showing him how to throw a basketball and roll a soccer ball. It was captured perfectly! 




Have A Blessed Day :)