Jenna surgery - July 23 - update

Jenna was super excited for the surgery yesterday.   She couldn't wait to be around the hospital staff (in fact, she filled out a form Sunday night online to volunteer at the hospital).   She also couldn't wait to get this part of the healing process over.

Dr Field told us that he was going to go in through the original incision sites and see what was going on since Jenna has a very large odd bump on the top of her foot towards the arch on the left foot.   We took pictures today before the surgery of that bump.

Dr Field said the mass could be a bone spur and if it was he would shave the bone while in there.   He also said it could be build up of scar tissue which means there might not be much we could do about the malformation.

Jenna was in surgery for just under an hour.   Dr Field said she did great and was slightly awake during a part of it and was quite entertaining.   He came out and brought me to a consulting room to tell me about the procedure.   He discovered that the screws were placed a little differently than what he envisioned in the xray.   The large mass was actually one of the screws working its way out.   That is the screw placement he wasn't aware/sure of.   He hopes that with the removal, the mass will be a lot less.   He also pointed out in the xray that is was difficult to tell a specific area on the foot (joint between big toe and the toe next to it - metatarsal 1 and 2 I believe).   Once the screw was removed he was able to see that the gap between the joints was a lot larger than he realized and than what is normal.   He wants to keep an eye on this and he says it might need to be monitored for years.   He said that the discomfort of her movement would most likely be because of this large gap and the screws.   He said that with the trauma, he is not surprised.   He was pleased with how the bones are lined up with the edge of of the joints.   He said that she will also be able to tell when storms come in :)   Who needs a meteorologist when we have Jenna's feet?

Jenna requested to keep the screws.   They are huge!   I was shocked. They look like screws I could have picked up at Home Depot for pennies rather than who knows what they charge at the hospital hardware store.  I should have picked some up from Home Depot and installed them myself and saved some money :)

She has to wear a boot for at least 10 days, maybe 2 weeks.   Dr Field said that Jenna will have throbbing in her foot for a couple of days.   He said this is because the bone has a void where the screw was and it is filling with blood (the holes) and will begin to fill with bone.

She's doing great.   I didn't see her for the rest of the day yesterday - only when I went down to give her pain medicine.  She is resting today.