Our 12 year old granddaughter is having surgery today

Site Admin/Owner Joined: Aug 27, 2002 Posts: 17088

This is a prayer request from our Daughter (Andrea Kiewel) and her family concerning surgery that Alexis, their oldest daughter and our granddaughter ( #2 of 8 ), will be having today. The bottom line is that this will be the beginning of several years of procedures until her arms stop growing.

Andrea writes:
Please, if you could, be praying for Alexis today. She is to be at Children's Mercy (Kansas City, Mo.) at 6 in the morning for her surgery to correct her arm. A lot of you know that this has been an ongoing problem with her, and so far they haven't done surgery. It is time now. They are going to remove the osteochondroma's (non-cancerous tumors) completely. They have taken over the bone, so they will have to then graft bone from her radius. Her radius has bowed significantly because of the lack of growth to the ulna bone. Her ulna bone (little bump on wrist) is 16mm shorter than the radius. With the last growth spurt, it put tremendous pressure on the radius. They will have to put several cuts in the radius to flatten it/straighten it. Then there will be plates and screws. She is 12 and very scared. She knows there will be a lot of pain. If you could remember us in prayer tomorrow we would be grateful.
In Christ,
The Kiewel family

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 5:54 am

Prayer has been sent and received. Wink

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 6:17 am

A candle will be lit and a mass will be dedicated in the Kiewel Family name this Sunday at our church - Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Good luck and God bless.

Cheers, Jay

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:27 am

My heart goes out to you and your family.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 8:06 am

Our thoughts and prayers are with you and your family Raven.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 9:40 am

For those who dont go to churches:

Light a candle

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 12:01 pm

My thoughts are with Alexis and her family.These are the situations where we parents are often helplessly. We can only trust in God.I hope everything goes well.

Worker Joined: Oct 26, 2004 Posts: 134 Location: Boston

My prayers are with you and your family

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 2:34 pm

Our prayers are with the young lady.

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 7:10 pm

Your family will be in my prayers. God bless

Posted: Fri Aug 22, 2008 10:51 pm

Thank you all for your prayers and well wishes. Today was truly, yet another, affirmation of how great is our Lord! The surgeons appear to have operated with the precise skills that God has granted them. It will be easier to just list the blessings and other details of today Smile

. There are 2 bones that were dealt with and the ligaments connecting them. The ulna and the radius. Here is the technical/medical description of the problem.

Quote:

Ulnar Osteochondromas: osteochondromas most commonly form from the distal growth plate. Unlike those of the radius the ulnar exostoses are typically sessile (no stalk) while those of the radius are often pedunculated (on a stalk). The osteochondromas of the ulna often lead to delayed growth of the ulna relative to the radius. The radius gradually gets longer than the ulna. The slower growing ulna tethers the growing radius leading to increased tilt of the radius towards the ulna with increasing ulnar deviation of the wrist. Over time, the discrepant rate of growth leads to subluxation and then dislocation of the proximal end of the radius (radial head) from the elbow (radio-capitellar joint). Dislocation of the radial head from the joint causes the upper end of the radius to deform into valgus (bent position). Occasionally an osteochondroma can develop from the ulna side of the proximal radio-ulnar joint. This can also contribute to dislocation of the radial head by pushing the radial head laterally.

Now, does that clear it up ? ROTFL

* The ulna and radial are connected by ligaments.
* Since the ulna was not growing properly it caused the ligaments to pull on the radial kind of like a hunting bow.
* When the surgeon cut the ulna diagonally to accommodate the reattachment by bone graft, they actually witnessed the bent radius straighten out almost immediately as the ligaments stretched back into place!
* The tumors were larger than what they thought but that was no big deal and they were removed w/o incident and sent to pathology. They are expected to be benign.
* The diagonally sliced ulna was then grafted back together with as much contact as was now possible.
* Muscle, joint, blood flow, etc. all checked out as they should.
* The open arm was closed and a full recovery is expected.
* No more procedures are expected to be needed.

The surgeons were amazed at seeing the immediate, although not yet entire, results. This is very uncommon and is really the basis for their very encouraging prognosis.

1 John 5:14 And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us:
1 John 5:15 And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him.
Psalm 96:4 For the Lord is great and greatly to be praised.

The morphine drip is working to control the pain (mostly) but we of course want her off that just ASAP. Thanks again!! You all are the greatest!

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 4:46 am

Excellent News!!!!! Wave

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:08 pm

Amen to that!!!

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 2:17 pm

I am, yet again, humbled by His loving grace and mercy. Thank you for letting us know how our prayers were answered. Wink

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 8:03 pm

Romans 5:3-4 says:

“...we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope"

Great news Raven Wave

Posted: Sat Aug 23, 2008 9:52 pm

Another great verse! Thank you!

Site Admin Joined: Jun 04, 2004 Posts: 6433

Great news! We hope she continues to improve and recover rapidly.

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 12:52 pm

Sorry I missed this due to being offline for a while but I'm really pleased at the outcome of the procedure and also at the responses here.

Posted: Fri Aug 29, 2008 4:02 pm

Thanks to all who have responded here and by other venues!