jmgoyder

A couple of people were curious about the pigmentation I mentioned in yesterday’s post (pre-surgery, we were told that Son had a couple of tell-tale ‘spots’ that were warning signs of scoliosis). Anyway, he allowed me to take a photo of the biggest of these which is on the inside of one of his elbows. He has a couple more of these elsewhere.

I remember now that they told us these were ‘cafe au lait’ spots. Okay so I looked it all up and found this site which I wish I hadn’t because, if the information is correct, it means that Son has this neuro-whatever condition which may have come from me. After all I’m the one with the freckles!

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/819447

Argh!

I suddenly realized that I have some useful, newfound knowledge to impart and that it may be helpful, so here it is.

At our first visit to the surgeon who performed Son’s scoliosis surgery, several student doctors were invited into the room to have a look at him because he was a bit of an unusual ‘case’. This was two years ago when Son was 16 and the reason he seemed unusual was that, with his shirt on, it wasn’t at all obvious that anything was wrong with his back. So, when he took his shirt off, the student doctors were taken aback to see such a pronounced curve. They circled him as he stood like a side-show exhibit, then someone drew attention to the inside of his elbow where there is a rather large brown patch of pigmentation, like a small birthmark or a big freckle. He was then ‘searched’ for more of these (if they’d asked me, I could have told them he had another one above his hip). We were then told that this is a warning sign for scoliosis.

Now who would ever know that? That’s why I’m posting this – in case you have children or teenagers with this kind of pigmentation. I’m sorry I haven’t presented research links here, but it’s easy enough to find on the internet.

My other bit of useful information is this: the longterm after-effects of general anaesthesia, and pain medication, can play havoc with the brain, especially after major surgery. Son was under anaesthetic for several hours and then on morphine-based painkillers for several weeks. It is now six weeks since his surgery and two weeks since he took his last painkiller. He is 90% his usual, adorable self, 5% his usual unadorable self and 5% a hound from hell who I’ve never met before. In fact, even Son admits to never having met this 5% of himself.

So, the other day, when we met with the surgeon for our first post-op. appointment, one of our many questions was to do with whether Son’s hound-from-hellish moods were attributable to the anaesthetic and subsequent drugs and the answer was yes, and that it might take several more weeks for his brain to recover from the onslaught.

Now who would ever know that either? The miraculous surgery and Son’s incredibly fast recovery – all so wonderful – has been somewhat tainted by that hound from hell but at least we now know that this hound will soon go away and that is an enormous relief!

I find myself having little crushes on the various medical practitioners who have helped us over the last few months. I’m sure this is quite normal and is a passing phase, but I would still like to buy the doctor who visits Husband in the nursing lodge a big bouquet of flowers (since I can’t grow any). And today, when Son and I saw his surgeon for the first time since the scoliosis operation, I could hardly stop myself from flinging my arms around him. The before-and-after pictures of Son’s spinal x-rays will show you why I feel such overwhelming gratitude.

Perhaps I should simply pay the doctors’ bills. That should eradicate the little crush problem I have; actually it already has!