Operation Day

We put our trust in Dr. Felton, pictured here with Amanda prior to her operation yesterday. He took out the plate and screws in her foot, including the broken piece embedded in the bone. There had been much discussion among doctors about the path to pursue with this. It appeared from the x-rays that there was  place where the bone had not healed. Dr. Felton said he would graft in some bone there, but that in his final x-rays last year, it had already healed. When he cut it open the bone was completely healed. It was solid everywhere. There was some tissue that was slightly different on the bone. He took a sample of that and sent it to the lab. It appeared as if she might be one of those rare people that has an allergic reaction to surgical metal in her body. We'll find out if that is the case in a few weeks. Both Crystal and Grandma Melzer are very sensitive to metal, so perhaps Amanda suffers from that as well. The allergy, as well as the broken screw might have been causing her problems.

We had so many different treatment options. The doctor we saw last Saturday recommended just magnetic stimulation and leaving the plate and screws in. He said the hardware would be encased in the bone and would not cause her any problem after the bone healed. Unbeknownst to him, the bone was already healed. We will follow up with the magnetic stimulation, as Dr. Felton grafted bone in the screw holes as well as in the suspect area, but if the allergy was part of the problem, magnetic stimulation alone would not have been effective in solving her pain problem. Dr. Felton was very happy with the results of her operation, and we're cautiously optimistic that she might be able to return to Germany in a month or two to finish her mission!