Post Surgery
Posted: Sat Aug 07, 2010 10:21 pm
My son Luke had surgery to reconstruct his brachial plexus on July 2 at Mayo Clinin in Rochester. Dr. Shin, Dr. Bishop and Dr. Spinner all worked on him at once and did an absolutely amazining job...They transferred nerves from the backs of both calves and his intercostals, as well as performed a gracilis muscle transplant, taking the muscle from his left thigh and attaching it to his shoulder, running the tendons all the way down to his hand for grasping. It was all very complicated and took about 13 hours because of a few complications (hemathorax). Overall, Dr. Shin said that they were able to do more with Luke than they had ever been able to do on anyone else, so we are very hopeful. It will be about 6 months before he will begin to feel anything begin to twinge, but he is so excited about being able to get any movement back at all! Right now he is still in a long arm cast which is held up by a sling with a cushion attached to keep the arm completely immobile. His next appointment is at the end of the month, so I will keep you posted on his progress. And Courtney, I did tell Dr. Shin hello for you...he laughed and told us how great you are!