Surgery plans...no date yet

Well, we spoke with the neurosurgeon and the orthopedic surgeon and everyone is on the same page with the plan for surgery. The date is still up in the air, but will be within a week or two based on clearing one whole day in the O.R. for both docs. They will be performing the posterior occipital fusion of the rear base of the skull to the spine. Unfortunately they are unable to avoid the halo. It may seem trivial for us to be worried about asthetics after the surgery, but it is much more than that. Haley will wake up from anesthesia and not understand what or why the hardware is mounted to her head and shoulders. In adults they drill 4 screws into the skull for stability. In children, which have thinner skulls, they use 6-8 screws. They are placed about even with the top of the ear (eyebrow height) and are made of graphite. We will be responsible for daily care of the screw sites with peroxide and antibiotic ointment. Forgive me but I am fearful of Haley's level of understanding when she wakes up. We can ask her now if she is ready to have surgery and she will wave her hand at us and say, "come on guys, let's get in the car for the doctor...yay...woo-hoo!" The graft for the fusion will consist of either bone harvested from her pelvis, rib, surrounding skull or artificial. The doc said the "gold standard" is pelvic bone with an almost 100% success rate. Please pray for all of the facets of this procedure. The orthopedic surgeon said they have seen zero cases like her, but have performed multiple surgeries in the past that they had seen zero of before and all have had a good outcome. The moment we are given a date for the surgery it will be posted on the blog. Thank you to everyone for your continued prayers for our family.
We love you,

The Cassidy's