Mayo

Treatments, Rehabilitation, and Recovery
Locked
timmygirl711
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:46 pm

Mayo

Post by timmygirl711 »

Hi all!

Back at Mayo again. Wondering if anyone is also here visiting. Will be here until Friday the 13th.
timmygirl711
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:46 pm

Re: Mayo

Post by timmygirl711 »

Hi All,

Change of plans here at Mayo. My husband is one year out from his initial surgery at Mayo and has everything innervated that is supposed to be. He is about 6 months ahead of schedule. On Wednesday the 18th, he is having a wrist fusion surgery and removal of the paddle from his shoulder. Just wondering how everyone else who had the surgery did after. We are from NY and is a long way home to travel back from. We are leaving 5 days after surgery. Hope that should be OK for him.

Thanks all
Kelly
srhykerd
Posts: 130
Joined: Sun Aug 27, 2006 6:26 pm

Re: Mayo

Post by srhykerd »

Kelly,
My daughter, Melanie, had that same surgery (wrist fusion and removal of paddle) done in Oct. 2007. She did very well. She only stayed over one night in St. Mary's for pain control. She has no sensory nerves in her arm so it wasn't for her arm pain is was for hip pain, where they took the bone graft from. She said it felt like someone slammed a bat into her hip. That was a little ouchy, the first week, but we were able to fly home to PA the day after she was discharged. She was thrilled to get that skin paddle off! I'm sure your husband will do just fine! Good luck to you!
Sue
bensmom
Posts: 92
Joined: Sun Sep 09, 2007 7:54 am

Re: Mayo

Post by bensmom »

No advice, but I just wanted to wish you both the best of luck with the next surgery.
EllenB
Posts: 604
Joined: Sun Jan 12, 2003 1:22 pm

Re: Mayo

Post by EllenB »

How does the paddle work with the surgery? Is this something that's left in from surgery & then you go back later to get it taken out? John's Mayo surgery was almost six years ago so I expect things are done differently now.

Thanks,

Ellen
timmygirl711
Posts: 25
Joined: Tue Aug 28, 2007 11:46 pm

Re: Mayo

Post by timmygirl711 »

Hi all

Thank you guys! I heard the thing about the baseball bat to the hip, ouch. Should be no problem.

Ellen,

My husband had avulsed c6 thru t1. C5 was still intact. So they did the nerve grafting and muscle transfer at the same time. They took both sural nerves from the legs, then they used intercostal nerves from the chest inbetween the ribs and flipped them over into the arm. They also used some of the spinal accessory nerves. Because c5 was viable, they were able use that to tie into some things and it also works on its own for the deltoid I believe. When they harvested the gracilis muscle from the inner thigh, they also took a piece of thigh skin and placed that over the shoulder/clavical area. They used it to monitor the muscle and its blood vessels. They were able to determine whether or not the muscle was getting enough oxygen by the color of the skin, and they also used a Doppler to hear a pulse in the vessels. It can be removed and is usually done in the second surgery while they are fusing the wrist. Because the paddle is thigh tissue, it is a bit meatier and different colored, oh and it grows lovely thigh hair also. My husband is pretty happy about having his "slug" removed. After this surgery he may or may not need one more. It is called the Zancholi procedure. This is where they move the tendons around in the hand to get his grasp a bit better. After healing from his surgery on Wednesday he will need to wear a splint that keeps his hand in a cupped position. If the muscles tightens up enough he may not need the Zancholi surgery. Time will tell.
Locked