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Member
Posts: 8
| Hi!
This is Lukes mom. Luke is recovering here at the Childrens Hospital of Philadelphia after having 2 VEPTRS implanted by Dr Campbell last week. IHe is doing "fantastic" according to Dr. Campbell and the hospital staff. We will be back in late April for his first expansion. I Was wondering if any of you could share your experiences with having your child's first expansion so that I can know what to expect?
Thank you! |
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Expert
Posts: 3970
    
Location: Plymouth, Pennsylvania | FIRST LET ME SAY THAT MY THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH LUKE FOR QUICK HEALING...
ZOE HAD HER IMPLANTS AUGUST OF 2000, AND HER FIRST EXPANSION WAS JUST 4 MONTHS LATTER...WE WERE FRIGHTENED AS I KNOW
YOU ARE, AND OUR SURGEONS EXPLAINED TO US (DR. JOHN EMANS AND DR. ROBERT CAMPBELL) ON A SCALE OF ONE TO TEN, THE IMPLANTS AT THE 10 RANGE, THE
EXPANSION WOULD FALL INTO A 4-5 RANGE...THE KEY FOR ZOE WAS TALKING AT LENGTH WITH PAIN MANAGEMENT, AND WE LEARNED THIS AS WE WENT...WE WANTED THE PAIN COVERED WELL, WITH THE FREQUENCY OF HAVING TO TAKE ZOE BACK TIME AND TIME AGAIN, WE DID NOT WANT 'HORRIBLE' PAIN MEMORIES FOR HER...FOR ZOE A 'MORPHINE PUMP' WORKED WELL...ZOE WAS ONE OF THE KIDS THOUGH THAT IT TOOK A FEW DAYS IN THE HOSPITAL WITH EACH EXPANSION, BUT AS TIME WENT ON, AND TO FINALLY THIS LAST EXPANSION, SHE WAS ABLE TO COME OUT THE SAME DAY OF SURGERY...SHE HAS GOTTEN STRONGER EACH YEAR...AND SHE WAS BACK IN SCHOOL THIS TIME A WEEK AFTER SURGERY....BUT AGAIN REMEMBER, THAT WAS NOT ALWAYS THE CASE...YOU WILL LEARN AS YOU GO...BOWELS ARE ANOTHER AREA OF CONCERN WITH ALL OF THESE SURGERIES, ESP. IF YOUR CHILD HAS BOWEL ISSUES AS ZOE AND MANY OF THE CHILDREN DO...A GOOD CLEAN OUT BEFORE SURGERY, AND MAKING SURE SOFTNERS OF WHATEVER YOU USE, ARE GIVEN QUICKLY AFTER...THE ANESTH. SLOW DOWN THE BOWEL AND THE LAST THING YOU WANT IS AN IMPACTION...KEEP US POSTED ON LUKE, AND KNOW OUR THOUGHTS AND PRAYERS ARE WITH YOU...GOD BLESS... |
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Member
Posts: 15
| Katie had her VEPTR surgery last October. Since then she has had two expansions. The initial operation was so hard on her body that I was terrified about the first expansion. We were told that it would pobably require and overnight stay. With us it took about an hour and a half after she left us for surgery until we saw her in recovery. The procedure took about a half hour, but you have the prep time and time in recovery before they called us back. Both expansions we came home the same day. YAH! She seemed somewhat off balance for probably the first day but after that she was back to normal. We go back in January to have one of the rods replaced. |
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Elite Veteran
Posts: 853
Location: Fort Wayne, IN | Welcome, and I hope Luke is healing up well from his surgery.
As others have said, I too was very nervous for the first expansion surgery, but it is typically much easier on the kids than the first one. Alex has had several (12, I believe) and usually either leaves the same day, or the next day.
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Questions re: expansions
