3 weeks in/Foot correction

We are now 14 days into the manipulation process of Ava’s  foot. As expected it has been quite up and down. I’m now back at work and Simon is on parental leave/working from home looking after Ava. She is in some discomfort as we are pulling broken bones apart via the frame so she is still on strong painkillers to help manage this. 

Ava has met up with some friends which has helped take her mind of things but she is quite frustrated and is not sleeping well. Having a frame is very restrictive for a child - there really isn’t an awful lot you can do. It also has a huge psychological impact, something we were informed about by the hospital and remember from when she was 6 years old. Thankfully the wonders of new technology have helped - Netflix, Amazon Prime, YouTube, Insta.... (anything goes at the moment!)

I have managed to do the pin site cleaning a number of times which involves cleaning the open wounds (16 in total) with special sterile medical equipment and then re applying new foam pads to minimise the risk of infection. This is still quite time consuming (takes me an hour) but Ava copes well with this.

Simon has also taken Ava for her first of many follow up appointments at the hospital. She had an X-ray (see below) to monitor the gap in her bones and the progress from the manipulation. During this appointment they also saw the physio who has given special exercises that we have to do with Ava on her toes each day. This is to prevent them from changing position due to the breaks in her bones (keep them straight and upright). If the bones drop Ava will have to have another surgery to put more wires into the end of each toe to keep the bones in the correct position which we obviously want to avoid (particularly as this is even more painful).

So all in all this has been a difficult few weeks. We’re all quite exhausted and counting down the days until the frame is removed (hopefully mid October all being well). The frame is removed by another surgery but it’s obviously a much simpler process than having it fitted. 

65 days and counting..........