Brooklyn’s Surgery

I apologize for the lack of blogging during our stay at Shriner’s Children’s Hospital during Brooklyn’s surgery – there was no wi-fi and I could not blog from my phone. We are home now!! We spent all of our time there in PICU where they could keep a closer eye on her. Brooklyn’s O2 stats were driving them crazy – they did not understand that with Rett Syndrome comes breath holding – and with stress and pain of hip surgery comes frustration and MORE breath holding! After three days they realized I know her the best ;) (I have oxygen at home if we need it!)
Below is a picture of her in her “brace.” The surgeon does not cast with this procedure – which I was against at first. BUT this keeps her nice and straight and you can tell it covers her entire legs. It is pretty much a foam abductor pillow that is strapped around her. Not the most comfy device for her I’m sure. She is used to curling up and sleeping on her side :( But she is a trooper!

Hip Abductor "brace"

This is what her hip looked like before surgery – completely out of socket and lying up beside the pelvic bone.

BEFORE surgery

AFTER surgery – they took a slice of her femur bone to reconstruct her sip socket then used a plate/pin to put the hip back into place for good. They also went in and lengthened her hip/groin muscles. Her range of motion was severely compromised prior to surgery.

AFTER surgery

We KNOW that this surgery does not mean that she will be up sitting and standing again right away but we can HOPE! My dream is to get her back taking steps again – before her hip got bad she was able (with FULL assistance) to take steps and my prayer is that will happen again!