April Surgery

Ronnie had surgery on Wednesday, April 25th. It lasted about 5.5 hours and they did quite a bit. They did a total of 5 Z-plasties on his right arm ranging from his shoulder all the way to his elbow. It looks more like one long zig-zag but Ronnie says he can already feel the difference. He also had a scar band excised from his right hand and a full thickness skin graft from his left arm put in its place. Two pins are currently holding his hand open and a large bolster is tied tightly to his palm.

They did not do any work on his torso or leg this time which meant no a slightly shorter hospital stay. He got out this morning and is relaxing on the couch. While his pain is tolerable enough to be discharged, it is by no means gone, so pray that it would continue to diminish.

Our biggest prayer request at this point is for Ronnie's hand. We knew going into the surgery that there was high risk for nerve damage since his hand has been operated on so many times. When he woke up in ICU, he immediately had the doctor called in because he had numbness in his fingers (mainly his pointer). After anesthetics wore off and feeling was still absent, the doctor said that he believes that the bolster is putting pressure on the nerves but there is no way to know if there is damage, permanent or otherwise, or to what extent until the bolster is removed next week. Understandably, this has worried Ronnie a lot as he does not know to what extent his hand will be able to function later in life. I am reassured that the doctors do not anticipate permanent damage, but there is no way to be sure. We know that God is the ultimate healer and we are praying that, whatever the outcome, his grace will be sufficient.