Cassidy's Surgery

Just a quick update on my Cassidy. She and I drove down to Primary Children's on Monday. And I just have to note that for the first time I did not get lost trying to get back on the Highway - anyone who knows my sense of direction knows that this is an accomplishment! The real news for this post however is that they have decided to schedule the surgery. (for those that don't know Cassidy has a common chest deformity - well two actually - Pectus Excavatum and Pectus Carinatum) We have known that this was coming for probably 5 or 6 years. I however kept hoping that they would say that they had discovered a new non-invasive pain-free treatment. Well that didn't happen! When we went for her check up about 1 1/2 years ago Dr. Meyers said she wanted to see Cass back when she had a growth spurt and then talk about scheduling. A couple weeks ago Cass was visiting me at work along with several other kids and Barry. Barry was busy weighing and measuring the kids just for fun and he let me know that Cassidy had grown 2 1/2 inches since January. I called Primary's and they said that is considered a growth spurt and that we should bring her back. Dr. Meyers only sees patients two Mondays a month so we had a short wait but Monday the 20th was her day.

I get nervous about traffic and being late so we left early and got there almost 2 hours early only to discover that the Dr. was running late anyway so we still waited for forever to see her. It was kind of funny actually because we went up to her office and let her know we were there - early. We asked if we should find something to do of if we could possibly be seen before our 11:40 appointment. Since it was only about 10 they were like of course we'll see her before then but the Dr. has been in surgery and is running about an hour and 45 minutes behind. The lady behind me pips up and says "but is she running late for all the appointments this morning?" The receptionist looked from me to the lady and back again and says, "well since she is in surgery then yes". I guess the other was just hoping I was disliked or something. We ended up seeing her about 12:30! But we went down and had lunch and stuff and time went a little faster then it could have. Next time we will be sure and bring a book to read!

Any way Dr. Meyers looked at Cass and showed us the pictures from last time. I have been able to see her chest growing deeper but I was surprised to see how much worse it looked then lst time. She explained that since Cass has the most rare form of the defect and that actual bone is involved and not just cartilage that she really needs to have it corrected. She said she wanted it done this year. I was like - oh so sometime before next September? and She just looked at me and said "um, THIS year". I was like oh 2010! So since Cass has 2 weeks off from school in December and my doctor will be gone the 1-9 making it easy for me to be out of the office - the surgery will be the first week of December. We won't know the day until of October and the exact time not until the night before - WOW. They anticipate about 4 hours of surgery and then about 1 week hospital stay. She cannot go to school for at least 2 weeks after that - they said the first 2 months are pretty difficult but then we should see improvement. She will be on activity restriction for 6 months due to the idea that if she is falls on or is hit on the chest her ribs will penetrate her hear or lungs - um that doesn't sound great. So as scary as it is it will be good in the end. Keep her in your prayers come December - she will need all that she can get - (and her mom too!). We'll let you know changes as we get them.