Out of surgery

Forgive me if there are typos, I am using my dad's iPad, and although it is awesome, the set up is a little different than my laptop.

We got the word that Whitaker was out of Surgery about three hours and forty-five minutes after the doctor made the initial incision. We went to a conference room and then Dr. Stevenson came in to talk to us. He said that Whitaker did great and assured us that he was doing fine before he went through the surgery with us step by step. Dr. Stevenson found that the first vertebrae, which was going to have half removed in the course of surgery, had actually fused to the base of the skull and therefore, the growth hormones would likely never have made enough room back there. Because of this, he removed all of the first vertebrae, after he separated the fused part from the skull. He told us this was not a big deal, just affirmation that the Chiari malformation was not going to be correctable without surgery. He said that he tried to see if the decompression of the brain would be adequate by only removing a portion of the skull, without going into the fluid-filled sack at the top of the spinal cavity, but it wasn't going to do the trick. Therefore, he went ahead with what he calls, "the full Monty". He did all the other parts of the operation, which included opening the pocket that protects the cerebellum, shrinking the tonsil that was descended below the base of the skull, and carefully, meticulously inserting an expandable patch to take the place of the missing bone pieces.

He also said that whitaker's neck is bigger than his, so he could absolutely not get away with dissolvable sutures. When the bandage comes off, he will have big black stitches for two weeks until he goes back for his post op check.

Whitaker is in ICU now and John and I went back to see him. He was trying to get comfortable and has wanting to lay on his face so the nurses/doctors/team of people back there in his room worked it out so he is laying flat, but still at a 20-degree angle. The risk of a leak of craniospinal fluid is greater if he is laying flat, so he has to be at a 30-degree angle until he gets out of he hospital. His incision is not bad, but the shaved part and the iodine make it look a little angry. He was asking for ice chips and John is giving them to him. There is only room back there for one at a time, and John is good at this part (which is code for "I don't want to be in there if he pukes") and John has to leave tomorrow to go to a conference in another city, so I am being "generous" and letting John be with him. I'll go check on him and give john a break after I update the blog!