Bilateral Gastrocnemius Recession to correct Idiopathic Toe-walking. Phew. I'm not good with medical jargon, so I thought I'd start with that and promise no more big words!
Continuing with everyday vocabulary, here's a rundown of what the last few days have looked for us, all revolving around Wyatt's Superpower Surgery at Batson Children's Hospital.
|| MONDAY ||
The day before surgery, we drove to Jackson for a pre-op appointment with Dr. Patrick Wright. We had a very straight forward conversation where he summarized the surgery for us, and we left with instructions to arrive at the hospital at 7:00 am the next morning.
We also left incredibly hungry. But guess what?! Brent's Drugs, one of the filming location for 'The Help' movie, was less than five minutes from the doctor's office.
Brad knew I wanted to go there, but neither of us knew how close the doctor's office was to Brent's Drugs until I mapped it on my phone and saw that it was just a mile away. Brad has a tendency to get hangry, so he was happy with it being so close too.
He said, "Sometimes God is looking out for me."
"God's always looking out for you," I replied.
"Sometimes He makes it real obvious."
After lunch was over, we made our way to Brad's Parent's lakehouse. They invited us to spend the night and offered to keep Delta Mae the next day. And it cut our morning commute to the hospital down by about an hour. Yes and yes! Thank you, Ralph and Judy!
|| TUESDAY ||
It was dark, extremely dark, was we left the lakehouse at 5:32 am. Other than the almost accident due to two deer dancing in the road, I felt very calm. Actually I wasn't nervous at all. And neither was Wyatt!
: PRE-OP :
After being called back to a room, we helped Wyatt change into his hospital gown, and before we could even get him completely dressed, there was a gentleman at the door ready to bring Wyatt to the pre-procedure waiting area.
Dr. Wright came over to tell us that he had a great team backing him up during the procedure. He also said that the newly promoted pediatric orthopeadic surgical nursing director, Hayley, was especially fond of some of the new cast wrappings she had purchased, and asked if they could add a little hunters orange to the camo that Wyatt had asked for. Yes, please!
As they wheeled him away, I successfully fought back tears.
: POST-OP :
About an hour later, Dr. Wright came out to tell us about the surgery. He said that the tissue that he removed between the muscle and tendon was so dense, that he actually had to get a stronger pair of scissors to cut through it. He also said that we absolutely made the correct choice in moving forward with the surgery because physical therapy never would've fixed it. Thank God we got that reassurance. It's tough making decisions regarding your child's body.
Soon, we received our discharge papers and instructions, and started making our way home at around 1:00 pm. The time flew by, and I'm so thankful for that!
A full 24 hours has passed and Wyatt is doing wonderfully. We are still waiting for his walker to be delivered, but he's getting around great without it. I was impressed earlier today when he walked into our back yard with the help of just one of my hands. But later, we were back in the house and he was taking steps completely unassisted!
It's a whole new world for him, learning to walk with his heels on the floor, but he's pushed himself more than I expected already. It's a long road ahead, but progress has already been made. I'm so proud of you, Super Wyatt!
