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Friday, January 11, 2013

The Caleb Post-Op Report


Scott here.

So, early this week we were informed that the orthopedic surgeon (the "knee guy") of the Air Force's 10th Medical Group at the Academy scheduled Caleb for repair and reconstruction of his 3-ligament knee injury (ACL/PCL/MCL) for Friday (today).  My bosses at World Harvest encouraged me to leave our annual leadership meeting two days early in order to attend Caleb's surgery.  So, I forked over a bunch of money to United Airlines and flew out to Denver yesterday (Thursday) where I was generously lent a car for the week by dear friends and supporters.

Caleb's superiors released him to me Thursday night.  What a happy guy he was hobbling out of the USAFA gate.  Off we went to stay with other dear friends for the night - its sort of the theme of this entire experience, our family being cared for by an army of saints.  Caleb wouldn't admit when his last shower was, but he made up for it by taking showers both at night and the next morning (following the instructions of the surgeons to use the special chlorhexidine scrub on his knee).  "I feel so cleeeean", he said smiling ear-to-ear.

In the outpatient surgery center of the 10th MG, we had extensive briefings from the ortho doc and anesthesiologist - listing potential complications mostly.  (Interestingly, the anesthesia guy went to med school with Dr. Jason Fader, our general surgeon from the Burundi Team).
The surgery itself took a bit more than four hours - a little longer than the orthopod expected.  The biggest surprise finding in the surgery was that the ACL was found to have ripped off from the tibia bone, but the ligament itself was intact.  So, the surgeon was able to just tack Caleb's own ACL back down to the tibia.  Huge bonus.  The PCL did require replacement with a cadaverous ligament.  MCL was repaired with sutures.  By x-ray the only evidence of this surgery will be one screw and one staple.

The bottom line, though, is that the orthopedic surgeon was smiling afterwards and said "the surgery went very well."  Thank God.
Now on to rehab.  It's a long, long road. He'll be hooked up to a machine at night which passively moves the knee all night long (to keep the range of motion good).

Thanks again for praying...keep it up.

9 comments:

Jill said...

Oh goodness! That passive knee moving machine sounds...awful! :) Thank you for the update, I prayed several times for Caleb today. I'm so glad they found an intact ligament to tack back on. I will surely continue praying for rehab to be miraculous and not discouraging. It sounds like you have a large group of fans on Team Caleb.

lisa said...

Thanks for the update. Praising God for all good news.

Lee said...

Just in from work to read this great news. Continuing to pray for recovery and that USAF officials will understand that the nature of transportation in the US doesn't mean that was the norm for everyone at the Academy.

Lissa Roberson said...

Scott, thanks for the detailed post-op report on your Zoomie son. I am keeping him in prayer -- and lifting up you and Jennifer as well. God's so good to have placed you in the States for such a time as this (exorbitant plane fares aside.)

Carol M said...

praying for healing, praying for encouragement.. praying for strength..

Amy said...

Oh I speak from personal experience, the knee moving machine is a torture device but it works! Yay for Caleb!!! Praying for endurance and lots of motivation for reahb

Lois said...

Praising God with you for this good news!

The Mathison said...

Stoked to hear the good news of a "very good" report from the Doctors. So thankful for the Myhre family and for Caleb; for your example to all of us in the midst of uncertainty and unexpected events. Praising God with you guys and continuing to pray. Looking forward to hopefully connecting with Caleb in the near future in CO! Blessings to you guys. Miss you all.

DrsMyhre said...

Thanks all for the encouragement...
You guys are Team Caleb!