Update on Ava

I just wanted to give everyone that is following Ava's story an update.

Yesterday we went to her weekly doctor's appointment and she had her cast removed. The above photo shows a little of what her arm looked like. The aqua things are the caps that are on top of the pins that were in her bone. There was a third one on the underside of her arm where the major part of the surgery was. She has two incisions, the one you can see here and a much larger one on the underside.

The pin that was on the underside had lost it's cap when the first splint came off and the doctor didn't want to try and push it back on, fearing that he would hurt her by pushing the pin too. So when her cast was removed yesterday there was quite a bit of dried blood where the pin had been moving and rubbing on the incision...that pin slid out with all the gauze because it was crusted with blood. Thankfully it had healed up a bit and looked okay. The two top pins had to be removed by the doctor with a pair of pliers and a little wiggling and force. We had talked about her possibly having to go under again to get the pins out but she is one tough girl and pushed thru the pain while she was awake.

So cast and pins have been removed now and the incisions are healing well. She had some drainage from where the pins came out so is on antibiotics but should be just fine. She didn't try to move her elbow yet as she is VERY scared to do so. So the doctor has put another splint on it that can be removed for her to bathe. X-rays showed that the bone has healed perfectly and she has a lot of new bone growth now. So that is wonderful news!

There hasn't been any improvement on her damaged nerve yet. The doctor told us yesterday that a nerve regenerates at 1 milimeter a day and she has to regenerate the nerve from her elbow all the way to her fingertips so it is going to take a LONG time. So still no feeling or movement in her index finger and thumb and her wrist wants to move out to the side instead of up and down. So even when she IS able to use that arm and hand she will still have to use her left hand to write, eat and do every day things. She is in high spirits though and is my little trooper!

Next week's appointment we should be getting some physical therapy exercises for her to work on to strengthen up her arm.

Thank you again for all the love and support that everyone has given me, Ava and my family.

Ava's Pins & Getting X-rays with her new splint