Landing on Recovery

"Dr. Shin and Dr. Bishop are ready to speak to you," the communication nurse found us dropping caffeine into our system ala Caribou Coffee. One of my favorite parts of surgery is when the nurses tell you to take care of yourself and to go get a bite to eat - yeah, right! The last thing you want to do is to take even one step out of the parent waiting room.

Sitting in the tiny conference room is not one of the most relaxing places to be,.. I've heard that the Jamaican beaches are nice,... but knowing that Hannah was done had some comfort to it. Kim and I both sat in our own silence, holding hands for the few minutes we waited to hear the outcome.

"The three bones have been removed," Dr. Bishop began telling us about the procedure. "The cartilage had been completely worn away, leaving bone on bone." He explained that while the removal of the bones was necessary to alleviate tightness in the wrist area, the sight would eventually host arthritis. With the bones removed Hannah's wrist went to a 30 degree bend.

Dr. Shin then explained the part of releasing all the muscle and tendons to allow the hand further flexing. "We were able to cut through a large section of scar tissue and release the hand." The one thing they both noticed was the artery that supplies the blood flow to the hand. Apparently, one was removed with the tumor, while the other was shut down by process of radiation. "This leaves one tiny path for the blood to flow to the hand which has us concerned," Dr. Bishop added. If the blood flow were to stop, then Hannah's skin would develop ischemia (shortage of blood which causes tissue damage that is very painful). "We released the tourniquet and her fingers turned pink. That's a good sign. Not quite sure how it's doing it, but at this point it seems to be working," Dr. Shin continued to explain the floppy hand issues. "Her hand has no function right now. With the release of the muscles she has nothing to bring her grip in."

Both went on to explain that Hannah would need another surgery (perhaps in August) to remove a muscle from her upper left thigh and place it into her arm. This would give her some ability to clench her fingers, but as for her strength in that hand,... time will tell. The one thing that they kept reiterating was, "She will be in a tremendous amount of pain."

We are waiting to hear from the recovery room and the possibility of getting a hospital room - because this morning they were waiting to see how many kids would be discharged today in order to place us in a room.