John's surgery today

[EllenB]

Hey Fellow Travelers,

Just an update about my son John Floyd, the teen who was hit by a car while cycling in Nov '02 (all five avulsed). He had extensive surgery last year at Mayo, involving 6 nerve transfers (including phrenic & contralateral C7) & two gracilis muscle transfers as well.

He had some "tweaking" surgery today, to adjust his grip, give more flexibility in his wrist, adjust the gracilis tendon at the elbow to give more strength to his arm & finally to clear out some scar tissue from the previous surgeries. All went very well & he's now on the mend - expecting to return home Sunday.

Glad to get that behind us, doncha know. Now on to four final exams next week (yikes).

Ellen

[hdcrash]

hey this is chris ive spoken with you and john on here before hows everything going with the shoulder and arm sounds good when does he go back to mayo i have an appoinment for july 12 let me know if you will be in the area around then

[EllenB]

Hey Chris,

John's glad to be home, & Mayo is pleased w/the surgery. By clearing out the scar tissue, they've greatly increased his degree of movement & strength in bending the arm & extending the wrist. And... good news is John is now much more motivated to aggressively tackle the daily therapy. At this stage, the ultimate degree of his recovery is totally up to him.

John will be in summer school until 7/16, so he'll miss being at Mayo the same time as you. Bummer. Probably they'll schedule him late July or early August for the next checkup (since post-surgery followup will be here in Atlanta.)

What will you be doing there 7/12?

Take care,

Ellen

[Paulo]

Thanks for the update
One more litle step for now, but a big step to Johns future.

Best to you and John,
Paulo

[Hwee Yong]

Hi Ellen,

It is great news that John is doing well.

Take-care & all the best.


Cheers,
Hwee Yong

[hdcrash]

hey thats great im glad to hear hes doing so good sounds like you guyd picked the right drs im going for a visit with the drs to see if im eligible for the muscle transfer they are swamped up there i applied in jan and just know got an appoinment i guess alot of people saw johns surgery and are going there i hate that he had to go thru what he did any of us for that matter but him letting them film that surgery and putting it out there for us to see and gain so much from is wonderful it really shows how good of a person he is i cant thank him enough tell him to keep pushing for him to be so young i think hes already more of a man than most

[EllenB]

Hey Chris,

I agree that this injury has "enabled" John to grow in many ways. I think he now sees the big picture and has a perspective on the gift of life that many people don't. Just 3 weeks before his accident, a fellow cyclist on his racing team was also hit by a car...and killed. Kind of makes you grow up pretty fast.

In terms of waiting until July for your gracilis transfer, could it be because Mayo is bringing in the muscle to power the arm? i.e., they're not working under the time constraints re atrophy of original muscles? At least, that's the impression I got from reading their article on the recent neurological publication that Nancy Birk referred to in an earlier thread:
http://ubpn.org/messageboard/thread ... hread=9226

Keep us posted & take care,

Ellen

[hdcrash]

yea my gracilis muscle transfer can wait because its gonna be for bicep and hand function the difference between mine and johns is that they used the intercostal nerves to my bicep and it hasnt done anything yet they transfered my trapezious nerve to my shoulder and its just starting to work so for the muscle transfer they will do the cross over so ill be backwards from john i think isnt his the oppisite the intercostal is for the hand function and the cross over is for the bicep shoulder man this stuff is confusing