October 29: Surgery Update

Jeff is already out of surgery! They took him really early this morning and he was done by 9:15. He should be out of recovery within the next hour and then we'll get to see him.

The surgery went as expected. They grafted exactly the areas they thought they'd have to--no more and no less. They took all of the skin from one donor site on his thigh. The doctors said that the donor site actually what will give him the most discomfort in the coming day. It kills us that they had to create a new wound for him to get better but in the grand scheme of things, it's a small price to pay so we try to keep that perspective.

His right arm is entirely unbound. He just has a little "Michael Jackson" glove over his hand but his fingers and the entire arm are free, meaning that the wounds have healed enough to be in contact with the air. They're still working with a splint on his left arm and that arm had a little grafting done this morning so the challenge will be how to move his muscles enough so they don't atrophy without moving them so much as to tear the grafts. I guess one thing they were going to do while he was "out" this morning under the anesthesia was take advantage of his state and manipulate all of his joints and muscles beyond where they'd been able to while he was conscious due to the discomfort it caused him. So that should be helpful from the Physical Therapy recovery.

Jeff's biggest challenge this week will be taking it slow. If he's too aggressive, he could tear his grafts or not give them a chance to ever meld in the first place. But I know it's going to be frustrating for him to not be able to be as active as he was in the most recent days. They haven't told us if they're going to rely on him to stay still and rested or if they're going to sedate him, or some combination of the two. I'll keep you posted in that regard.

Thank you all for your prayers. We're so grateful that the surgery is over and that it happened early enough that he can be through the emotional stress and on the other side on his way to recovery. I'm off to the hospital now...