Kyle's Second Surgery

Kyle had to have a second surgery 8 days after the first one. The first surgery was the decompression surgery, then traction for a week to straighten the spine a bit, then the fusion surgery. At first I wasn't nervous about this surgery but Kyle definitely was. For the days leading up to surgery day he kept mentioning how he didn't want to do it. I felt so bad for him.

The morning of the surgery he was scheduled to be in the O.R. at 8am. So a nurse came to get him around 7:30am. The nurse had to move Kyle's entire hospital bed (because he was still hooked up to the traction) to the operating floor. My husband and I went with him. When we got to the operating floor Kyle was moved to a small room to meet the anesthetist. Kyle was crying softly the whole time. The anesthetist was trying to joke around with Kyle but he wasn't in the mood. The anesthetist promised Kyle he would be asleep before anything happened but it didn't work out that way.

Kyle was given medicine to relax him and make he fall asleep but Kyle was too upset to fall asleep. When it was time to take him to the operating room he was yelling at me that he wasn't asleep yet, he didn't want to go. But we had to leave him.

As I walked to the elevator, I had tears in my eyes and I waved slowly to Kyle as he was being moved towards the operating room. I hated that moment.

Then I saw the neurosurgeon team across the hallway from me as if they were going to meet us in the small room. They glanced at me and noticed that Kyle was gone. They immediately came over to my husband and I and asked if we had any questions. Then Dr. Zovickian quickly explained the surgery procedure to us again. I was only half listening because I was sad and worried for Kyle.

The surgery ended up taking longer than the first surgery (prep time was shorter this time). This procedure consist of an implant screwed into the base of his skull and the closest intact vertebrae. Then they took bone from Kyle's hip and added it to the implant to stimulate the growth of new bone. Then he was put into his halo vest and stabilized. Apparently he lost 1/2 pint of blood which was to be expected according to the doctors. (My husband and I donated a pint of blood each a couple weeks before the surgery for Kyle). We got to see Kyle around 7:30pm. The procedure went well but when I saw Kyle for the first time after this surgery, I was stunned.

His face, eyes, and tongue was SO swollen. He looked terrible. His tongue had two large white sores on it and I'm guessing it was from the bite block. He tried to talk to me but I couldn't understand him. I stood in front of him frozen in shock. I was mad, sad and scared all at the same time. He wanted water so bad but there was no way he could drink anything because of the swelling.

I noticed he was laying awkwardly in his bed so I was going to help push him but without thinking I touched the side of his hip and he screamed extremely loud in pain. His entire hip was purple.

Needless to say, the nurses tried to make Kyle comfortable for the night and gave him plenty of pain meds so he could rest.

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Fusion with Chari Surgery