cautiously optimistic

We did beat rush hour, and got home about 3:30ish.   Extreme hunger was our first order of business, now we are working on pain control.  So far so good.  I am a little leery of the overnight hours after our last outpatient experience, but I'm hoping that I'm just being paranoid.  I will be much more comfortable after tomorrow gets here, and Mason is consistently comfortable.

The surgeon said the new bone growth looked great, and all the tissue looked great - no signs of infection.  She also said the hole in the bone from the infection was already filled in.  So now we just have to get the screw holes to fill in, and that new bone to get good and solid.  She wasn't sure on how long that will take - till she thinks it looks good to her I guess.  Somewhere in the neighborhood of 6 weeks or so, subject to change without notice.

This morning Mason was starving, of course, but he said he actually felt the "best in a long time", because he couldn't take anything by mouth - including his antibiotics.  It was a nice reprieve, however, it is short-lived. They informed him he has to start back on the oral medication this evening.  Oh well.  He has an appointment with the infectious disease doctor on Monday, and she is the supreme commander of medicinal torture.  I am hopeful that she will tell him he is DONE.   We shall see how his labs look on Monday.

This morning Mason seemed so much more peaceful than he has before other surgeries....maybe it was the good vibes and prayers people were sending his way, or not being on the horrible medicine, or maybe it was because he knows this is a corner turned, but it whatever it was - it lightened my heart a little to see it.

Surgery is done, Mason is in recovery. All is well :-)

Things are on time for a change!
They just took Mason back to the OR. The room is reserved for one hour, which is how long they told us the procedure will take. More later.

sleeping in tomorrow

Mason's been assigned the 1:00pm slot for surgery tomorrow to remove the plate in his arm.  This mean he gets to sleep in, as we don't have to check in downtown until 11:30. This procedure shouldn't take more than an hour or so, so hopefully we will be able to head home before rush hour.Then again, things tend to move slowly in the hospital...I will keep you posted.

retrospective

Approaching what we think/hope is the last surgery tomorrow, I have been thinking about this uncommon journey Mason has traveled.  It has not been a path we really expected, or one that anyone would want to tread.  I am hopeful there will be some sort of awareness in Mason, because of these hardships, that will enhance his life in the future.  I believe in the silver lining.

Even with a hunk of metal sticking out  his arm, Mason had "a great Christmas".  By that time we were hardly even aware of the fixator, although Mason assures us he was a constant source of gawking at school, or any time he was out in public.

Close up of the dreaded external fixator, complete with the screw Mason turned 4 times a day for 3+ weeks.



Who knew that external fixators made a handy iPhone stand?  "Neccessity is the mother of invention."



The family pet, Hank was keenly aware that something was amiss with Mason.  Normally boistrous to a fault, Hank was gentle with Mason, and kept pretty close tabs on him for several days after he came home from his surgeries.  Of course, he did rip out one of Mason's stitches too, but after all - he is a DOG.

The pictures below are kind of nasty to look at, but I'm looking at it as a sort of community service. If you have a wound that looks like this, coupled with severe pain, you are in trouble.  You need to get to a doctor, toot-sweet. Staphylococcus aureus is nothing to play with, as evidenced by Mason's 2 debridement surgeries to clean it out.  When it settles in your bone it can cause "destructive granulation", which is basically the bone turning into mush.  Thankfully the infection in Mason's bone was not near the new growth.  The hole the infection left will fill back in and be good as new.

Being inpatient in the hospital isn't fun.  Mason didn't even find the wheelchair amusing, although Olivia did!

One of the worst parts of this whole experience has been the chemical cocktail Mason has been forced to swallow 3 times a day for.....28 days or so?  Suffice it to say he has experienced many side effects, and is looking forward to being off the dope.  He did tell me he would rather take the meds for another week or so than end up with another infection, so I know that at the very least, he has learned delayed gratification. "So shines a good deed in a wicked world." ~ws

a good day

The orthopedic visit today was a good one. Mason's new bone growth has exceeded expectations, and the doctor will remove the plate (and the cement/antibiotic bead) on Friday, February 25. She would have done it this Friday, but she will be out of town for a meeting.


This will be an outpatient procedure, and recovery time should be better than his last series of surgeries.  And probably the best part is, he will soon be able to stop the chemical intake! The infectious disease doc wants him to continue them for about a week or so after the surgery, but just having a quit date really is helpful. :)  The added Zofran has helped with his nausea, but one of the side effects of that particular drug is drowsiness.....so then we have to add Red Bull to combat that.  It is/was a seemingly never-ending pharmacopoeia cycle, and it will be such a relief to go back to the mundane world of one-a-day-if-you-remember multivitamins.


So, we begin the end of the surgical portion of this saga! Hooray!!  I have a feeling the therapy portion of the journey won't be a lot of fun, but it can't be worse than what has already been overcome!


When we find out what time the surgery will be I will post it here. 

trudging along

Mason had his Infectious Disease Department check yesterday.  Everything looks pretty good.  There is still a small amount of swelling, but the tissue looks healthier, and things are about as good as they will get while the plate and ceramic beads are still inside his arm.  His sed rate, which is how they check for inflammation in the body, is under 20, which is good.  His CRP (another test for inflammation) is normal. The antibiotics are working. 

Mason continues to feel sick on the medicines, so we have added one more drug, Zofran, to his daily intake to try to combat the nausea.  He has already taken a couple hundred pills since he was released from the hospital, and it is getting OLD.  I know we should be thankful for so much, and we are, but we are also soooo tired of all of this, and bummed out.  I really hate complaining, because it doesn’t help anything, but today I am complaining on behalf of Mason.  This really SUCKS.

Wednesday Mason has an orthopedic appointment, where he will be x-rayed to see how the bone growth is going.  We are expecting an early-March date for removing the plate – perhaps we will be able to schedule that this week.  No matter how many surgeries your child has, it doesn’t get any easier to have them walk down that hall, away from you and toward the operating room.  I know there will be “life-lesson gifts” from this whole experience, but it is difficult to see anything right now but the pain.

Sorry for the downer post – cheap therapy for Mom I guess.

Here’s something kind of funny….if you have a sick sense of humor. (okay, I do. It’s better than no sense of humor) Yesterday afternoon the nurse called from Olivia’s school to come get her – she had a bad headache.  Since Mason had the doctor appointment downtown,  Scott came home and stayed with Olivia while I took Mason.  While Mason & I were sitting in the pharmacy waiting on the Zofran (by the way,  the insurance company will only approve 12 tablets at a time, and he takes 3 a day –grrrrrr) I got a text message from Scott.  Olivia was vomiting, and where was I???   It was kind of reminiscent of the time I left Mason in the hospital for a cup of coffee and came back to Mason puking into a bucket Scott was holding.Even Olivia saw the sliver of humor in that.  J

dem bones

Today was another doctor visit, this time to the orthopedic doc.  It was a fairly uneventful visit, which is GOOD!

The doctor says Mason is piling up lots-o-bone in the distraction area, and is looking at perhaps early March to take the plate out.  Mason is thinking that would be a horrible birthday present (his birthday being March 13) but I guess we will see what happens.

I have to admit that this time, I do actually see where the bone is growing in on the x-ray! I guess all that milk he has been drinking, along with the beating of drum sticks is paying off.  After he has the plate removed he will wear a splint for a month or two, and will still be on restriction from contact sports and heavy lifting.  But by summer wakeboarding season he should be good to go!

Mason also got his stitches out today!  Hank had made an effort to help out with that this morning, and had actually (accidentally) taken out one of the stitches. Mason said it hurt about the same when the nurse took them out as when Hank's claw took it out.  At any rate, his incision is looking good, and we are very hopeful that the new drugs are going to keep things moving along in the direction we want.  Taking the drugs is for sure no fun, but I'm going to get a different probiotic the doctor recommended to see if we can get rid of the general yucky feeling Mason has while on the dope.

Next appointment is Valentines Day with the infectious disease department!

one pill, two pills, red pill, blue pills

Dr. Seuss' influence is showing up, as Mason discovered this morning.

The red is Rifampin (btw - the rumor is true, it does cause you to pee Tang),  the blue pills are the Clindamycin, and the white pills are probiotics to keep the other pills from tearing up the intestinal tract. The number of those can vary, depending upon need.

All this 3 times a day.