Lava’s Follow-up Visit

On Wednesday, May 14, Lava had a follow-up visit with his surgeon, Dr. Morrison.  Dr. Morrison was pleased overall with Lava’s progress and took out the outer portion of the external fixator device.  The bone growth at the break site is not healing as quickly as he would like, so Lava was given a stern talking-to about putting weight on his leg and building up his bone density in order to avoid a bone graft surgery.

Unfortunately, Lava had another set-back later that evening when he began bleeding at the same pin site as before.  When the hemorrhaging couldn’t be stopped, Dr. Mac and George rushed him to MASH in Huntingtown for emergency surgery.  After some difficulty isolating the source of the bleeding, the doctors found an injured blood vessel that began to bleed freely once the pin was removed.  They tied it off, and despite the loss of blood, Lava did not require a blood transfusion.  He was able to go home the following day.

Ted and Cindy Ski are taking over Phase 3 of Operation Foster Lava to give the Nussbergers a much-deserved break.  They and Lava-java have been through a lot together, and GEGR is so greytful for everything they’ve done.  The Skis picked him up from MASH the next day and settled him into a nice spot by a window at their house.  On Friday, Cindy changed Lava’s dressing and all looked good. 

A HUGE thank-you to Dr. Mac, Nussbergers, and MASH for acting quickly and taking care of our Lava boy!  His situation was very grave but he’s got a great team rallying for him!  Special thanks too to the Skis for relieving the Nussbergers at this point in Lava’s foster care.  Hopefully this is the last of the setbacks for that special boy.