Surgery Continues

Isaac is still in surgery (4:45pm). Everything is still going well. Slow and steady wins the race (Dr. S's motto). The rods are going in as planned. They are using titanium rods (we were trying to remember which ones were used in January - we're thinking those were stainless steel). Isaac continues to be stable, and has had minimal blood loss. We are still anticipating him going straight to the floor, as at this point there is no indication of a PICU stay in our future this trip, so that's a plus. We are still following our traditional pattern here in the surgery waiting room - first family in, last family out :).

Dr. I (neuro) stopped by to see us a bit ago, and gave us a quick report on the MRI. The long and short of it is that we are still under the belief that he has a lengthy recovery still ahead of him from the surgery this past August. He continues to make improvements over the long term, so as long as we continue to see improvements over time, we'll take that! They feel the issue is that there is still a bit of pressure or contact to the spinal cord (no impingement, or kink, just isn't floating freely). On a normal person, your spinal cord has fluid all of the way around it. In Isaac, there is a place on his back where his spine is kyphotic, and at that juncture, the spinal cord actually rests on the underlying spinal structure. So if you can follow my muddled description, there isn't an acute problem that needs to be addressed, because there really isn't anything that can be done for that (where the benefits outweigh the risks). We are keeping our fingers crossed that these new rods as they are straightening out his spine a bit more, may relieve some of the underlying pressure, and we'll see some improvement. This is a long shot, but we can hope and pray, right?

No, this isn't halloween. Just a regular evening at the Murdock house. 

And in the time it has taken me to type this - we are officially the last family in the waiting room! Go us!

Just waiting to hear that he is in recovery. Hopefully that will be soon.

Love and Hugs -