It's now nearly 2 weeks since Starbaby had his op. Our consultant had talked about the possibility of a soft tissue release but in the end they decided to go with an 'early' tenotomy (i.e. a tenotomy being done well before the foot is at the 'nearly corrected' stage.
Our not-so-new-now hospital are fantastic - we were very happy with the care Starbaby received. As he has an undiagnosed neuromuscular disorder he is at higher risk of a potentially life threatening complication of general anaesthetic called Malignant Hyperthermia. So as a result of this, the anaesthetist decided to use an anaesthetic rather than the standard inhaled on, which was on the list of safe substances for MH sufferers... so basically she treated him as though he did have MH. As she said, one day it might be worth having him tested for it (which involves taking a sample of muscle) but she didn't want to find out he definitely did have it while anaesthetising him then! She was brilliant. His fab consultant also came to see him before the op and talked through everything. I can't fault the care he received.
We got to the hospital at 7.30am (after setting off at 5.30am) and only waited a minute in the waiting room before being taken to the ward by the nurse assigned to Starbaby for the day. After lots of checks, dressing him in a gown, putting on numbing cream for the IV, signing the consent forms and walking around with him in the sling to distract him from the fact he was hungry, the operating theatre was ready for him at nearly 10am. Before getting going with the anaesthetic, the anaesthetist produced some bubbles and started blowing them for him to watch! How lovely! She then passed them over to the lovely student nurse who was also with Starbaby for the day, and she blew them while I cuddled him and the anaesthetist put in his cannula and got the anaesthetic flowing in. It was quite disconcerting when Starbaby fell asleep... he went all 'slow', coughed a few times (the anaesthetist warned us to expect this, and said it was normal) and then flopped... it wasn't at all like normal falling asleep. Then we left the room, and they got on with his tenotomy. We waited back at the ward, and it was about 50 minutes before his nurse got the call to say he was in recover.
Poor little chap was very unhappy for a few hours after coming round... even breastfeeding only did a fleeting job of calming him before he was unhappy again. He was discharged in the afternoon, but continued to be very unhappy for the next 24 hours. The night was horrible - he cried and cried and cried, and then would sleep for 5-20 minutes snuggled into me before waking and crying again. He was so frustrated with his huge cast and just couldn't get comfy, and he was clearly still suffering with the after effects of the anaesthetic, as well as being in a bit of pain too.
It took 3 days before he was remotely himself again. Thankfully my parents had come up to stay and look after Big Sis while Starbaby had his op, and they were able to stay on for an extra day to help out... I was practically hallucinating from extreme sleep deprivation, so their help was very, very much appreciated.
At first Starbaby was really bothered by his cast, and it stopped him doing a lot of the skills he had recently mastered (squirmy crawling, shuffling/turning round in a circle on his bottom, going from lying to sitting) but over the past 13 days he has gradually worked out ways around the restriction and regained those skills... and added in a few more! He now has a very unique way of command crawling and can easily get from lying to sitting, both on his front and sideways.
I do feel sad that having had to adapt to life in a cast at nearly 10 months old, in a couple of weeks he's going to have to adapt all over again, this time to his Boots and Bar. And I also feel sad that had the fact his foot was unusual been recognised at our local hospital and it treated accordingly, he'd've been in full time BnBs from about 4-7 months... but instead he's going to be in them full time from 10.5-13.5 months, a time when he desperately wants to be on the move. I know it's going to be quite a major adjustment. I'm really worried about how his already wobbly sleep is going to be affected, and I hope he's able to find a way to be mobile in them as that is giving him so much satisfaction at the moment. My little wobbly boy who has to work so hard to achieve any physical skills has done amazingly... I hope he continues to amaze us as his talipes journey moves onto the next stage.
