Zack's ACL Surgery

Zack was such a trooper. This was not an easy thing and he was so brave! I quote I ran across during this time and loved that describes him so well syas, "If there is a Goliath in front of you, that means there's a David inside of you." -Carlos A. Rodriguez. This kid is a David for sure. He had to get Covid tested before the big day. The results didn't come in on time since there were so many cases at the time and so many tests being performed, that they had to do another one while we were there. He was nervous, but he knew it had to be done. I think not knowing exactly what to expect was good in some ways. The nurses and docs all came in to give us the rundown and then the anesthesiologist came to get him. They offered to wheel him back and he responded, "Can I walk since I won't be able to for awhile?" My mama heart broke as he walked down the hall. It was so hard waiting for the call that he was done. When I did get the call he was NOT HAPPY. The surgeon talked to us and showed us photos and told us it was a success. With his age they had to do the surgery a little differently. They went through the side to not disturb the growth plate and took his IT Band. They took a slice out of the center of it and threaded it through and attached it to create a new ACL. Dr. Aoki was the only one at Primary Childrens who would perform that type of surgery under 12 and Zack fit that bill! Anyways, they had us wait about 10 minutes while they tried to get Zack in a little better shape. He woke up like a lion! He had a little pain where the nerve block went in his thigh. When we got back to see him he was being wheeled to a room and was just crying. He had the anesthesia shakes and was in pain. It was heart breaking. They brought him a warm blanket and then that was when it got a little funny. He was a little crazy with the meds. He was worried about being naked at a point. He was worried his leg was gone because he couldn't feel it. He had to tell the nurse he had $97 dollars in his Captain America wallet. He told us the nurse said she knew someone with a pet lion. And he was SUPER set of NEVER going to sleep EVER AGAIN! We got him some awesome monster slippers while we were waiting for him to come out. He took about a half hour to come down a bit. We got our instructions and then got sent home. 

 

The first few days were a little rough. He slept well, which was good. But, he was in a lot of pain if you tried to move him unnecessarily. Taking him to the restroom was a little rough. He was spoiled rotten by family and friends. He had packages in the mail, visits, and lots of messages. His coach even stopped by. He felt the love and we felt the prayers. He was able to get through the week with no narcotics, and was able to keep the pain manageable. Which was great! His doc gave us some and said the kids usually do well with just the prescription strength ibuprofen and anti-inflammatory. He did so good! After a week we were able to take the big dressing off. And he eventually got to start getting around independently with a little pressure on his foot. The stairs were the scary part, but he figured out those crutches pretty quick! Instructions were for 4 weeks of partial weight with 2 crutches, 2 weeks with one crutch, and then lose the crutches.