Wound Closure–Surgery 10 Details!

Today was the big day for Mason’s wound surgery.  His wound is classified as a pressure sore, though it was actually a tear that started four and a half months ago.  Since then we have had multiple bandage changes every day trying to heal the wound.  Months of this. 

We began nightly enemas to keep him relatively poop free in an attempt to avoid infection.  Things have worked slowly, healing, filling in, debriding dead skin (cutting it out), and the never-ending bandaging.  We reached a point where the dead skin callused, leaving a hole, and would need surgically removed.  Mason’s wound filled in enough from the bottom up that we could attempt surgical closure at the same time with Dr. P, our plastic surgeon. 

The plan was to do surgery this morning, stay the night for observation, and head home the next day.  Dark and early Mason and I made the one hour trek to Children’s Hospital.  He checked in and we went to our pre-op room.  This room is where you hang out, answer questions, and have exams by the pediatrician, anesthesiologist, and surgeon.  And you wait some more. 

In Mason’s case that meant we spent a lot of time cruising the halls.  He had every nurse wrapped around his little finger and loved it.  He got stickers, played, raced Mommy down the halls, and played some more.

Then Mommy got suited up in her ‘bunny suit’ – no, I don’t know why they call it that, but they do.  The anesthesiologist had me come to the operating room with Mason to snuggle him until he fell asleep with the anesthesia.  For this surgery Mason did not get his IV until he was already asleep.  He’s pretty hard to get an IV into so this is always a blessing. * On a side note, when they brought him out to me post-surgery he had evidence of at least 3 attempts to place in IV plus 2 IVs in place (hand and foot).*

Surgery didn’t take too long and Dr. P came to talk with me.  He pulled me into a private room and explained that the removal of the callus and the closure went extremely smoothly.  So well that he was sending Mason home instead of keeping him in the hospital overnight!  I love when God answers our prayers over and above what we hope.

Dr. P explained that he closed Mason’s bottom with stitches and then a heavy coating of glue.  He pretty much filled in the entire gluteal cleft with glue.  This type of wound can be reopened easily and we don’t want that to happen.  The ideal would be to keep Mason from scooting around on his bottom for at least three weeks while it heals.  With that in mind Dr. P has encouraged playing on his tummy and spending lots of time in the wheelchair.  He openly acknowledged the fact that Mason is 1 year old and even adults with this surgery have a high reopening rate from not being careful enough.  Do what you can, he said, and don’t stress about the rest.

When Mason came back to me he was a bit groggy.  Before you can leave a child has to show that they can keep fluids down.  Mason got an orange popsicle to eat – his first.  He really enjoyed it. 

We’ve been home since early afternoon and Mason is pretty much acting like normal.  He doesn’t feel the fact that he just had surgery and was cut up.  While it is a blessing that he’s not in any pain it is also a drawback because he’s wanting to crawl, climb, and play just like usual. 

I’m trying to encourage tummy play when he’s not in the wheelchair so this picture shows what happened when I pulled out the Color Wonder markers. He was instantly joined by most of his siblings.  

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One last thing, have you noticed the Lilla Rose button in my sidebar? I’m an Independent Lilla Rose Consultant and of course I wore a Flexi Clip to the hospital today.  Isn’t that pretty?  It is a Freestyle Princess Tiara in size Medium – I love the multicolored look because it goes with just about anything I wear.