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February 27, 2006
Haydn's Knee Surgery
Haydn and I arrived at Children's Hospital at ten before nine. Rebecca arrived shortly thereafter.
We spent the two hours before surgery doing paperwork, waiting, and talking with various staff people about what the goal was and what was likely to happen. Haydn took everything in stride and seemed just a little nervous. He was never panicky. Still, I noticed, as they wheeled him away in his hospital bed -- from the waiting area to sugery -- that he had a single tear creeping down his cheek. He wasn't sobbing or whiney which made it tug at my heart all the more.
During the time Haydn was in surgery I ate and read (I'm up to "L" is for Lawless).
We'd been told that the operation might take from 45 minutes to 2.5 hours. It was right at two hours.
The surgeon said everything looked as good as they could have hoped. The cartilige was fine -- the bone behind the cartilidge was the problem. The surgeon did some drilling of some sort, the goal being to increase the blood flow and the bone mass or condition of the bone. (In situations like this I tend to focus on the outcome -- the part where I'm told Haydn is going to be fine and everything looked good -- and I miss some of the details. Really ... do I need all the details? It isn't like I'm going to develop a sense that something is wrong and reopen the knee one night with an Exacto knife. I knew to fill a prescription, get some prune juice, take the bandages off Wednesday night and not let Haydn in the shower till then, to keep him from putting weight on the knee until we have a follow-up visit -- and probably for 8 weeks total, to send him to school Thursday, that he'll be on crutches for 8 weeks most likely, to get Tylenol to supplement the prescription, to beat into his skull the evils of the Republican party, etc. I'm not sure how the drilling increaes bloodflow. Maybe drilling into the bone causes the body to react in such a way that more blood is sent that way. It can't be that they're drilling new blood channels ... the knee isn't a closed system ... blood can't come out of a vein or artery (whichever one does this job) float around in the knee and then magically reenter the circulatory system. I'll ask some questions during the follow-up)
No screws were needed. No big incisions. It was all done arthoscopically.
Haydn and I left around 3 p.m. The valet who retrieved our car was a French woman about my age. I used some of my horrible French on her and told her this story. She was encouraging and assured me my French wasn't that bad (but it really is). Later it occurred to me that it has been very close to 30 years exactly since I was in Paris (it was Easter 1976).
Haydn took to a recliner when we got home. He's been up a couple of times and has complained just a little about knee aches. He seems very content.
I am very happy with the way the whole thing turned out.
Posted by delmer at February 27, 2006 9:48 PM
Comments
That's really good to hear. About Haydn, not your French ;)
Posted by: Angela Giles Klocke at February 28, 2006 7:33 AM
Glad everything turned out OK for Haydn. It won't take any time at all for a young guy like him to recover.
About: "Really ... do I need all the details?"
On my follow-up, I was asked to come see the videotape of my operation. I dragged the wife with me. Afterwards, we both wondered why we needed to see it.
Posted by: Rob at March 1, 2006 3:36 PM
AGK: Yea. I expect Haydn to have a full recovery. Not so my French.
Rob: Somewhere I have a tape of my knee surgery. I really wanted it. I've never looked at it.
Posted by: delmer at March 1, 2006 4:00 PM