Several people have been asking if there is any news on Luke and his needle fragment. Luke had his pre-op appointment today. On Thursday Bob brought home a bunch of magnets from old hard drives at work. They put them together, and Luke spent some time waving them over his knee, making sure the same pole was always pointing down. After several hours of that, he could bend his knee again, and you could see a lump under the skin, so it seems like the magnet helped bring it up to the surface. He and Bob actually went back to the ER at Bethesda Saturday morning, hoping someone would just take it out, since it was obviously so much closer to the surface. But no one wold touch it, since his case had already been briefed to all the ortho residents, and it was someone else's "baby". But they did do new x-rays, including one with his knee bent, and then they could see that the fragment is between 2 cm and 1/2 inches long. Because the new x-rays took so long to get, Bob and Luke had an adventure driving home in a big snowstorm, so that was exciting.
So today they scheduled Luke for surgery on Friday morning. They'll call us on Thursday morning to let us know exactly what time, but most likely we'll have to arrive between 6:00 and 8:00 AM. Whee! They are going to try to get it out using local anesthesia, but if they can't get it, then they wiil put him under and try again, so that is why they are doing it in the OR. Unfortunately the OR is booked until Friday. By then the fragment will have been in his leg for over a week--and Friday is Luke's 16th birthday. Happy birthday to Luke! We are praying they will be able to get it out with the local anesthesia, with a minimum of rooting around in there, so that the recovery time is quick. He'd really like to be able to play in his basketball game on Sunday, but that may be stretching it. Thanks for praying. It's been a wild ride!
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