Daisy's Surgery

Hello Everyone- sorry this entry is a little delayed. It's been a busy time.

Daisy had her surgery on 14 February at the hospital in Bend. Carla Smith and Mike Ryan were her surgeons and Kevin Flaherty was her anesthesiologist. She was incredibly brave and did a great job in the morning. It's hard to believe this is her third major surgery and she' s only 5.

The surgery lasted over 6 hours, but they were able to successfully operate on both hips. They performed femoral osteotomies on both hips and a Pemberton procedure on the left.

The prognosis for the left hip is excellent. It is well seated in the socket and they were able to shape a good joint and seat the femoral head.

The right hip; however, does not have the same prognosis. They were able to re-seat the femoral head (it had slipped backward after her previous surgery), but there was not as much bone to work with and because of the previous surgery and Daisy's anatomy, their options were more limited. Right now, things look good and we'll just cross our fingers that they stay that way. The work they did should straighten her right leg, but she'll have limited extention of that leg. It appears that both legs are relatively the same length.

It's been a little rough so far as Daisy has been very painful and was very nauseated after 6 hours of anesthesia. She turned a corner last night and we're finally getting her pain well under control. She was having some painful muscle spasms that were interfering with her sleep, but those are under better control now.

She'll probably be in the hospital until Monday or Tuesday and then will be at home. She'll need to spend the full 3 months in her spica cast, with a cast change halfway through. She'll be out of her cast in mid to late May.

She's had a few visitors so far, but it's been important to try and get her to sleep and eat. She's had incredible care in the hospital. Her nurses and physicians have gone above and beyond the call of duty. Thanks everyone!

Thanks for keeping up with her progress and we'll continue to keep you posted.