14 May 2007: The touch up surgery ........

Category: General
Posted by: marsha
Today the grafted areas of skin that did not "take" were grafted again. The Dr. was very pleased with the healing that has taken place thus far....she actually harvested more donor skin than needed so she was able to replace some of it so Mike's pain at the donor site would be minimized. As I left Metro, I had just finished a visit in the recovery room (not usually allowed, but they let me see him for a few minutes) and they had no room assignment as yet. Mike apparently was sleeping soundly and as he was snoring the nurse noticed that he has some sleep apnea going on, so she notified the Dr. and now he is waiting for a bed with "pulse ox" capabilities to open. The sleep apnea will more than likely resolve as his weight adjusts. Mike wanted to rest, so I left to wait for his phone call to tell me where he is and what he might need. We thought Mike's stay in the hospital would be "overnight", but Dr. McDonald wants to protect the graft for at least 48 hours, so he will be in until Thursday or Friday--bummer. Again, it's great his surgeon is so fussy and so extremely cautious. She didn't think he could make it home while maintaining a 45 degree flexion angle--he sits in his w/c at 90 degrees, so I think she is prudent keeping him in the hospital. So, the surgery went well and Mike will enter the home stretch of his recovery..we don't anticipate any other interruptions. His rehab for flexibility and strength will resume when the graft sites are deemed a "take".

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