1st hand surgery

Well, Dane had his first hand surgery 3 days ago. The surgery was 3hours long and everything went very well! We were thrilled to find out that there were in fact 2 separate arteries and 2 separate nerves, one for each finger. This was unknown until surgery. The bone was also fused at the tips of his fingers too. Joel was able to walk Dane to the operating room and was able to stay with him until he was completely out. Joel said it was very hard to watch but he was glad he was able to be with Dane. We had our very own private waiting room and the staff was super nice. They do not usually allow parents in the recovery room after surgery but they do sometimes make exceptions. When Dane got to recovery he was very agitated from the anesthetic and was crying for us so the nurse allowed me to come in and actually sit and hold him right on the bed. When it was time to be moved to our room the nurses allowed me to stay right on the gurney with him...Joel thought it was funny to see the nurses wheeling Dane and I into the room.

Recovery has been going well for the most part. The first night was alright- he only woke 3 times and was fairly easy to get back to sleep. The last 2 nights he woke only once. We did have to make a quick trip back to Grand Rapids the morning after his surgery. Dane was sitting in the living room chair pretty mellow and comfortable. His big sister was in the chair next to him so I figured it was pretty safe to take a quick shower. Boy, was I wrong! Not even 3-4 minutes later, David came runnin into the bathroom screaming, "EMERGENCY, EMERGENCY! Dane has his cast off and he is bleeding!" I quick I hop out of the shower, soap in my hair and all and rush downstairs to find that Dane does in fact have his cast off. How in the world he managed that I do not know. He just pulled the whole thing right on off. (My only thought is maybe the swelling went down or it was not put on tight enough). So,  I scoop Dane up take him up to the bathroom with me, set him on the floor and wrap his hand in a clean bandage and I quick hop back in the shower to get the soap out of my hair. When I got out I quick called the doctor's office and then my mom to see if she could possibly help me with the 3 other kids. My mom came to my rescue and took the 2 girls and the boys and I headed back to Grand Rapids for a new cast. Thankfully Danes surgeon and staff are absolutely wonderful. They reassured me that this does happen on occasion, especially with the little ones. They checked out his hand and skin graft site and everything looked great -no harm was done...whew! They put the cast on and sent us back on our way.

Today Dane has been running around like nothing ever happened. That big cast is not slowing him down one bit which I am very thankful for!! I think this is going to be harder on me trying to keep him clean, dry, and fairly quiet.
We do have a post op. appointment in 2 weeks. We will get the cast off and get a peak at what his fingers look like. The Doc will then decide if he wants to do another full cast, partial cast, softer bandage or something different.