So it's early afternoon on surgery day. The expectation was that M would be just waking up around now, and we would find out what kind of cast or brace he had, what procedures had been done, etc. We would likely be getting our things together to be transfered to a room and spend the night.
Instead I'm sitting in the glider at home with a sleeping baby in my lap! No casts, no braces, and no pain. There is still some confusion about some things, but on the whole I am counting today as a win.
To start with, M was a champ this morning. He's usually a very happy baby, but we weren't sure how he would handle being tired and hungry in the pre-op waiting room. He surprised everyone by being calm and happy (apparently six weeks out of casts is enough to lose the negative association with medical spaces and personnel), playing nicely while his vitals were checked. He didn't even cry when the OR nurse took him back (parents of children under one aren't allowed into the OR, apparently).
We were told to expect a minimum of two hours, likely more if they needed to do a cast. So we grabbed some breakfast and didn't rush to the waiting room. But minutes after we got back, the anesthesiologist was there to report that M was awake and things had gone well! This was under an hour from when they had taken him back.
The surgeon came by later with an update--the arthrogram showed a pretty healthy hip. He may still require use of a brace at night for a bit to make sure it continues to develop properly, but no surgery or casting is needed to correct it. Amazing news, much better than we had expected!
The part we are still confused about is his feet. The original plan had been to examine him today and either recast the feet while under sedation (which should allow a more thorough correction, since he wouldn't be able to tense up and resist), or if things were too stiff to repeat the Achilles tenotomy and then cast. Our primary foot doctor checked him during pre-op today and felt a tenotomy was best, and asked the surgeon working on the hips to perform it. She was operating on another case next door and said she would come in if needed.
From speaking to the hip surgeon after today, he felt the feet were too tight for a tenotomy and he couldn't feel/reach the Achilles. I am not sure if the other surgeon came in to look or if this was just his opinion--she was still in the OR when we left so we didn't hear from her. We were to.d she would be in touch later to make a plan for the feet.
The expectation now is that his feet will require surgery of some kind to achieve full correction, presumably followed by casts and braces of some kind. Now we just wait to see what that will be.
In the meantime, we will continue to work with his amazing physiotherapist to try to get him stronger and more mobile. He's made big strides in the last month and she felt he was on the cusp of catching up in lots of areas, so perhaps having a few more weeks of mobility will allow him to achieve some more milestones. And we will celebrate that he isn't in the spica cast, so I don't have to figure out a whole new way to do everything in our lives. The foot casts are inconvenient, but they don't require a new car seat, high chair, wardrobe, diapering routine, etc. Much more manageable!
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