Surgery and Recovery

I know, it’s been two weeks since the surgery. I suck at waiting so long. Here’s the scoop on how it went.

Liam’s surgery went very well. Both surgeons were pleased at the outcome. This surgery separated his two joined fingers, removed a bunch of fatty tissue (a process called de-bulking), straightened the fingers with some bone adjustments, and drilled the growth plates to stop further growth. He’s been in a cast up to his shoulder, so we won’t get to see the final results until they take off the cast and remove the pins on the 26th.

He actually did pretty well considering all of the stuff done to him. Nurses were bugging him almost hourly for the first couple of days and no amount of morphine drip was going to reduce his irritation. He surprisingly didn’t do a whole lot to try and pull out the IV, though he did get the various pulse, oxygen, and respiration sensors torn off more than a few times. The surgery was on a Wednesday and we were discharged on Saturday morning with a bottle of oxycodone (for him, not us) and a kid thrown way off his schedule. Thankfully, we didn’t have to use the oxycodone for more than a couple of days before switching off to Tylenol. He was even doing well enough to fall asleep on his own when we took a fun day out in Boston Common and got the world’s best cannoli in the North End. He’s been surprisingly adaptable too. He scoots around with the greatest of ease and can still sit up and lay down on his own. He still likes finger foods and has even tried a few new things. (The dried apricot was a triumph, I tell you.)

This isn’t the end of the surgery, though. We’ll need to go back in the fall so that they can come in on the other side of his index finger for further debulking and to see about correcting his hyperextended thumb. After that, it’s a waiting game to see what happens. His fingers could either grow at a normal rate, or they could start growing much faster. In either case, the surgery in the fall likely won’t be the last of it.

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5 Responses

  1. Sara says:

    I’m glad you finally posted how he’s doing. We’ve been thinking about him. And I’m glad you managed to sneak in a quick restaurant critique 🙂

  2. Tanya says:

    Hello.
    I am so happy Liam had a very successful surgeries.
    Who was Liam’s doctor in Boston?

    Thank you so much
    Tanya

    • debbie says:

      My 10 yr old son has macradactly in right foot. He has had 3 surgeries so far with good results. He plays basketball, soccer and is very active. We see Dr. Kasser at Children’s Hospital in Boston.

  3. Kristin Buhl says:

    Just wanted to thank you for. Great blog? Our daughter was born with this as well BLESSED it being only her middle finger . She had growth plates taken out 4 years ago did great and just this week did the debulking. She’s 13 and it’s a llong road but we asked god to get us to where it was HER choice , he did but it’s hard watching her know what is happening. But the SURGEON was TOTALLY HAPPY we go back the 10th and can’t wait to see the progress. Od bless you and all will go well. Take care

  4. Kristin Buhl says:

    Just wanted to thank you for. Great blog? Our daughter was born with this as well BLESSED it being only her middle finger . She had growth plates taken out 4 years ago did great and just this week did the debulking. She’s 13 and it’s a llong road but we asked god to get us to where it was HER choice , he did but it’s hard watching her know what is happening. But the SURGEON was TOTALLY HAPPY we go back the 10th and can’t wait to see the progress. Od bless you and all will go well. Take care

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