Just Jack: Shiny New Struts

We went to Rush yesterday to have the fixator struts changed. I swear if you could put our car on auto-pilot, it would take you to Rush! The car ride there was loooooooong with an uncomfortable, crabby, and very hungry little boy. Everything went fine. Jon carried Jack back to the OR (our request) with his ni-ni (very special, very tattered blankie). Jon said Jack was checking out the OR, and we were wondering how many 6 year olds know what the inside of an OR looks like! Jack panicked a bit when they put the anesthesia mask on, he always does. Now, this is the kid that will watch a nurse put in and take out an IV, but hates the gas mask….strange! Jon and I had enough time to grab a quick bite to eat and within 30 minutes Dr. Kogan was done. They page us to a waiting room and we talk to the doctor over the phone from the OR, because she had another case to get to. Her first comment to Jon was, “please tell me that ni-ni had a hole in it before we took it to the OR.” She was concerned that they had put a hole in Jack's blankie in the OR. She’s a mom, can’t you tell??? And that is why we LOVE her, she “gets” kids!

Anyway, she said he definitely has an infection. She scrubbed the pin sites and gave him a huge IV dose of antibiotics. She said to keep him on the oral antibiotics and keep an eye on the infection. She said if the new struts get to be hard to turn (they weren’t this morning) we may have to switch to turning more often….I really don’t want to do that, I like to stick to protocol. :) It would be nice to do the lengthening twice as fast, but there are risks….and I don’t like risks! We'll see, like I said, today they were nice and easy to turn.

Here’s are new shiny struts. They go up 62 cm, we won’t need to go that high, but another 3 cm would be fabulous!!!!

Jack was starving afterwards, so the ride home went well. I sat in back and helped him eat potato soup (his favorite) and then he crashed into one of those anesthesia-still-in-the-system naps. It was heavenly...until I made myself carsick by reading in the back seat! :)

Here’s a picture of the new foot brace. It’s been tolerated quite well!