One Down

As many know, Lexi's surgery has come and gone.


the week before the surgery was VERY stressful - in that, we didn't know if the surgery would happen at all. I received a call the Monday before the surgery from the medical center stating that our insurance denied the authorization for surgery. Oddly enough they approved for Lexi to see her Dr. Jones as her surgeon, but denied any coverage should a surgery actually need to take place. I'm still trying to follow their logic... and still coming up SHORT. Yet another reason i REALLY don't enjoy working with insurance companies.

Anyway, after a tense 4 days of wondering if both moms and flown in for nothing, we finally got word on Thursday morning that Lex qualified for CCS (California Children's Services). CCS will actually cover all the cost of treatment until the issue is resolved or she turns 18. Definitely a blessing!

The surgery was scheduled to begin at 8:30 so we had to be at UCI at 6:45AM. After arriving we spent a lot of time in the preop area to get Lex adjusted and comfortable. They gave her an oral sedation - after we begged - before starting an IV for full sedation. Come on, what 18 month old is going to lay calmly on a table surrounded by a room full of strangers dressed as ghosts, and breath deeply while a mask is placed over their face. I can hear it more than picture it, and it sounds something like, "no no no!".



The surgery was supposed to last about 2.5 hours but actually ended up taking closer to 4.5 hours. I was long over due for an update when the doctor finally appeared with his report. He stated that it turned out to be quite a bit more complex that he had originally thought. Initially we did the right hand first because he thought it to be the simpler and more straightforward of the the two. She had a fully developed 6th finger hiding in between her 4th and 5th fingers, and some extra bones had be left in in an attempt to not hamper future growth of her fingers.



As Dr. Jones was explaining his findings and all that he did, he was literally bouncing with enthusiasm. Usually he is VERY calm and almost appears perpetually bored, but not after conquering this challenge! He even pulled out a digital camera to show us before and after pictures (which I am trying to get a copy of... one day lex will thank me!). I think that my lecture before the surgery that we wanted her fingers to be "functional" and "pretty" motivated him to pull out all the stops... and he definitely did not let us down!

So to sum up: everything went better than expected and Lex is doing very well. So well in fact, that in the future I am going to request one of those medically induced comas for her... she may not need to rest, but I certainly do! She has adjusted to having a cast with no problems. She truly does not even notice that it's there. It was mere hours after surgery that she was dancing and running around the house like nothing had happened.

We have an appointment on Thursday July 2nd for the cast to come off - and hopefully that will be the end of work on her right hand!