4 April 2011, pre-op day visit with Dr. Standard and Rishi

Today was our pre-op with Doctor Standard.. decided to post this old pic of doc S so that people could put a face to the name. Appt was at 1pm and we saw him at 3pm, he never rushes anyone at all..so you can always expect a long wait. That's fine with us because he never leaves you with unanswered questions and that to me is golden because we have gone many a year with too many! He explained to us that he intended on performing a "head splitting" dislocated, reshaping osteotomy now. The head splitting technique is key to those who have extensive damage to their femoral heads already. There is a slight chance that due to the head splitting, that Donavan could suffer "necrosis" all over again.......  :(   Avascular Necrosis means  the temporary or permanent loss, of the blood supply to an area of bone( in Donavan's case the femoral head). Without blood, the bone tissue dies and the bone collapses. This would be Perthes all over again. Doc says though that he has high hopes that we may avoid this. Also there is a chance Donavan's hip (femoral head) will not want to stay in its socket (acetabilum) the cup that holds your hip... and he will require an external fixator for about 6 weeks. This too the doctor feels is a slight chance but wanted to mention it to Donavan. Oddly enough Donavan did not seem very phased by this. He definitely understands, and listens with eye contact when Dr.Standard speaks, but I think at this point he in numb to the entire situation. Donavan's primary concern is that he not be catheterized when he awakens from anesthesia !!!!! At 14 thats a serious violation. I on the other hand feel that considering he is as bad as it gets, I want change...something little or large, I don't care which as long as it leads to improvement. Donavan's quality of life must be improved. Doc also shared with us that he won't be scratching Donavan's growth plate during this procedure because he has some more important growing to do and we want to let his body do as much of the work as possible to help correct his leg length discrepancy. After this surgery Donavan will have to come back to Baltimore for possible pin removal and an overall checkup and xrays in 3 months. At that time doc will assess the situation and we will make an educated decision of what course of action to pursue.
  
     Wishing we had transportation so I could take Donavan out somewhere tomorrow for his last "free walking" day before surgery :( Our options are very limited... I will come up with something tomorrow. Tonight we watched some television together and discussed our trip home and how we miss it. God please see my boy through this without damage. I would give anything of my own to ensure this....  One more day till Surgery... Wednesday we check into the OR at 11am. Goodnight C: