Osteotomy

[Marnie]

I would like to hear from those of you whose children had the osteotomy done. Has it improved movement, what is the recovery time, etc. Dr. Nath prefers this procedure over the caps with Peyton and would like some input. Peyton is doing fine so far, he does'nt like it when we have to take the splint off to change the bandage. He does'nt want us to do the rom's, he does'nt want us to touch his arm. We are suppose to be working on getting him in the palm up position but it does'nt seem to be working. If we turn his arm just the least little bit he crys:( BTW he had the mod quad July 30. Just wondering will it get easier to rotate his arm to the palm up position?

[Missy]

Marnie,

How old is Peyton? Mitchell is having the osteotomy done in November.

[Marnie]

Peyton will be 5 Sept 8th. Dr. Nath is talking about doing this 8 to 9 months down the road. How old is Mitchell? Has he had any other surgeries? Who will be doing the osteotomy on Mitchell?

[Missy]

Hi Marnie,

Mitchell is 7 and will have his Osteotomy in November at the Shriners Hospital (Dr. Drake) in Minneapolis. He had a pectoralis release and muscle transfers done there also in January of 2000. Good luck to you and I hope parents who's children have had this done already will post to this topic!!

Missy

[moontje]

Hi,
my son had have a release at the shoulder and just a osteotomy. Amazingly, he is still in his bandage but he can alrady squeeze his fingers. Never did this before. So looks good.
You have to ask your self what are the profits of this surgery, what will be the gain, only cosmetic or function.
What I do before a surgery is that I don't expect anything so it will only be good.
Good luck. He will be fine!!!!!

[francine]

Monique what great news! I was wondering how the osteotomy would give more finger function...did they do any other procedure at the same time? Can you explain it more? Thanks

How is baby?
-francine

[marymom]

risk assesment is also something that a concerned parent would obviously consider - In my opinion few here seem to wish to want to discuss the emotional and physical risks involved with surgery as something worth foregoing the surgery for- many choose to view any sincere reviewing of possible risks ,failures and complications as negative or unsupportive so- therefor the posts and reviews are unwanted and those who review surgery in that manner(as a risk) are commonly asked not to post (in private emails I mean, Im not referring to the recent deleting of posts by UBPN)so anyone looking probably wont find much risk review here- but...that doesnt mean risks dont exist.

[admin]

We recently pulled our child out of having surgery because the function was pretty good and the risks itself w/the surgery could not be ignored.

I feel that we made the right choice! However, if the arm does not get better w/age and use or OT then we will again consider the surgery.

You are right that risks should not be ignored. The arm could get worse, there could be complications to anesthesia, etc. There are no guarantees and it is scary for any parent. These decisions should be made w/both sides here on this board giving info.

I am not aware of any posts being pulled or emails suggesting that a person should not post the negative! If this is the case UBPN needs to look hard at its own decisions!

Anon

[christy]

There are risks with all surgeries and the cost, emotionally and physically are tremendous. I do recall one parent posting quite some time ago about one of the procedures that she would not choose to do over again but I don't recall which one it was,although I don't think it was the osteotomy. I am not so sure we could all be lumped together Marymom as not wanting to hear the bad stuff too. I kind of appreciate all the input but as always we make the decision to go ahead or not on our own and do research outside of this forum as well. I hope that parents of kids that have had this speak up and share with us the upside and downsides. As far as the recent deleted posts I didn't see them, don't know what they contained but I remember the last time we heard from the alleged person I can't recall one of us that escaped her wrath, even when we tried to understand and had veiws similar to hers and even though I personally asked her many questions she never gave me answers and I was sincere.

[admin]

Parents that decide on surgery are not making this decision lightly. Parents who decide on surgery are looking for a better quality of life for their children. We exchange a time period of discomfort for the hope of increased joint health, increased function and less secondary issues. We know the risks. We are always being told to do our own research and to get many opinions. We know there are anesthesia risks as there would be with any surgery. We know there are risks of failure. We are reminded of this again and again and especially one more time before we sign the paperwork. Do you think that we view surgery as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow and we walk blindly down that path? Stop making assumptions about us.