One of the concerns we had preoperatively was that of perfusion to Namine’s legs. She almost lost a foot due to complications in the clubfoot repair last year, so you can imagine how seriously we’d take pain in her legs and feet. The head of special needs, Dr. Gordon, took a look this morning; he didn’t see anything alarming, as her perfusion and refills look good. (“Refill” refers to, when you push down that the skin turns white, how long the skin takes to get its color back.) The nurse performed a doppler (basically, an ultrasound) on Namine’s feet, and was able to find the pulse in her left foot in both places without problem; the right foot, however, was not so clear. The doctors, upon further discussion, were concerned that the removal of the arterial line from her right hip may have resulted in a clot, which would be contributing to the difficult-to-hear pulse; therefore, they ordered an ultrasound on Namine’s right leg and hip to examine the blood flow.
Jessica had asked about having a physical therapist work with Namine on Tuesday, and we thought it might be a good idea to have the PT work with Namine’s legs today, especially if her legs are hurting (as the doctors speculate) because of swelling. But first, we have to wait for the results of the ultrasound. In the meantime, an occupational therapist came to work with Namine’s arms for a bit. Namine has quite a bit of restriction as far as how she can move her arms, as the doctors don’t want her pulling anything, but she is still allowed to move her arms up using her elbows. She is also allowed to move her arms to her chest level – but not above – but doing that gave her left shoulder a cramp. She’s a little more comfortable now that she has a warm compress sitting on that shoulder.
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