Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Quick update on Vivian's arm.

DSC_1789
Vivian with her stack of colored pictures for my neighbor Karey. Vivian works very hard on these creations, and as she completes each one, she says, "Allison's mom will love it"

We are still experiencing a few issues with Vivian's arm after her surgery in mid-June. Apparently Vivian is *allergic* to Vicryl, the material used for internal stitches, in that her body does not dissolve them as intended but rather *spits* the stitches out. As a result, Vivian's incision has yet to heal completely, and now there are signs of infection there.

The allergy is not serious enough to have been the cause of Vivian's catastrophic fever last summer, but it explains how back in March she developed a staph infection in an incision from her g-tube placement some seven months after that surgery.

Dr. Brown is treating Vivian with antibiotics, and hopefully those will clear up the infection in her arm. Once the infection is gone, we will evaluate whether to schedule an additional minor surgery to remove any remaining internal stitches and sew up the incision externally. I'll keep you posted.

Since her *cactus* was removed, Vivian has a very small amount of improved motion in her elbow, though certainly not enough to warrant surgery had we known this would be the result. Vivian rebounded so quickly from the procedure, however, that I'm not sorry we tried. In typical Vivian fashion, the incision on her arm has not bothered her one bit, even in its current inflamed state, and I am very grateful for that.

As always, I deeply appreciate your prayers and concern for Vivian.

7 comments:

Mona said...

Bless her heart. Prayers ascending.

Unknown said...

healing prayers for vivi coming her (and your) way. i have a dear friend who endured a similar allergic reaction to her stitches after having a c-section! she's fine now but it was a rough go (couldn't pick up her baby, incision took months to heal, loads of antibiotics, etc.). long story short, she's completely fine and healed now and knows that she has that allergy (which is a rare one, apparently) so it's all ok, medically speaking, for the future (they know not to use those sutures). sweet vivian is such a trooper!

Maggie said...

Praying for Vivian's healing and for your sense of peace. V sure has had a rough time with this arm.

JMW said...

All the best to Vivian - will keep her in my prayers. Sweet photo of her!

Her Preppiness said...

Praying for Vivian. She looks wonderful.

Lynne said...

My son had the same issue earlier this year when he had surgery for a collapsed lung. Once the dr. finally removed the "dissolvable" stitches, it was almost as if you could literally watch the incision closing. In a day or two, it had closed up more than in the entire previous month. Did Vivian also have issues with the surgical tape? My son still has red patches on his body where the tape was from a late May surgery. So thankful that she doesn't appear to be bothered by the incision.

Cassy said...

Praying for her to get well soon.

Cassy from Beginner Free Guitar Lessons