Janie’s hand surgery went well today. The doctor was very pleased. I had been a little confused about the extent of the fractures because it seemed as though at one point when he first saw her, he said she had 8 fractures, and at another point he seemed to say that she had 4. It turns out that she had about 10 fractures in 4 places. He said everything moved back into place nicely and is held together with a plate, screws and wires.

The “Before” x-ray is not very clear, but you can clearly see that the top of the large arm bone is shifted over by about 40%. There are several fractures in the top piece. The other fractures are more difficult to see.

The “After”  x-ray shows all the screws and the plate installed to keep everything in place.

Janie came out of the anesthesia nicely. Of course she was in pain and has meds for the pain, so she’ll be pretty wiped out for the next few days. Gradually, she can switch to less powerful meds and begin doing more. The pain should be considerably reduced now that the bones are stabillized. She will be in a cast for up to 3 months. The main concern is the scaphoid bone–a small bone in her hand (uppper right in the “After” x-ray). It broke into 3 pieces that are now held together with a screw. The doctor said this is one of the most difficult bones to heal, and that’s why she’ll have to be in the cast for so long. However, after about 2 weeks, she will be switched to a smaller cast that allows her more movement in the elbow, and after about 6 weeks, she’ll get a cast that can be removed temporarily for showering, etc. She won’t be able to do too much physical therapy until the cast comes off, so she’ll still have some rehabilitation to go after the first 3 months.

Thank you all for the expressions of support we’ve gotten, both in blog comments and on Facebook. We are very thankful that she didn’t do more serious damage, and that the surgery went well.

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