Here's Eli visiting with Granny and Pa at school the first week in September. While he is leaning right in his chair, you can see that his shoulders are square.
A couple of weeks later I noticed his right shoulder was really drooping. Todd brought it to my attention as well so we thought we'd better take him for a check up with Dr. Bellflower, the orthopedic surgeon.
To all of our shock and amazment (including Dr. Bellflower...perhaps mostly Dr. Bellflower), X-Ray shows that he has broken one of the rods in his back. Apparently there must have been one spot on his spinal column that did not fuse - while the bone above and below that spot did fuse, so there were 2 solid counter measures bending with each one of Eli's movements. The rod was like a stretched out paperclip that was bent back and forth, back and forth and finally snapped. The other rod looks like it could completley snap at any time.
So...back he goes for another surgery. This one won't be as big as the initial surgery - the incision will be 6-8". They will put "sleeves" on both rods at the breaking point and they put some kind of protein accelerator on the bone at the weak point to encourage the bone to fuse. He will be in the hospital 5-7 days. We will get a date for surgery on Monday.
Thankfully Eli doesn't seem bothered by the snapped titanium rod in his back! Apparently this is usually very painful, but he has not shown any signs of distress.
Bless his sweet little heart.
1 comment:
sigh...a lack of pain must certainly make a difference.
Saw mum and dad for our murder party this weekend - thanks so much for the gifts. The kids were 'wrapped' as the gifts were 'unwrapped'.
Heard some great things about Kevin too. Love to meet him some day.
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