Thursday March 07, 2013

Been a long time since the Fite's have posted.  Sorry if anyone feels deserted.  I am mainly adding information so we can keep up with procedures.  They will never become common place but we have not been very diligent in reporting.  Clay had a tissue expander in his scalp under his hair for the majority of last summer.  We had a plastic surgeon that was planning to move the hair and rebuild one of Clay's ears.  We received a call unexpectedly in the middle of the summer and the surgeon we had been dealing with was dismissed from staff and we were handed off to a new surgeon at Children's hospital in Dallas.  The new surgeon was very helpful and ultraconservative.  He stated that he would not have done the ear or the hair.  He offered to finish the hair project but told us he was not comfortable doing the ear and his heart was not really in doing the hair.  He encouraged Clay to consider a wig and artificial ears.  Clay was not willing to consider either one. (Surprise)  To bring this chapter to a quick close Clay went in for surgery the day after school started last year, August 28th, and they moved the hair back nearly to the crown of his head.  After the surgery the doctor told us Clay should be able to make his own decisions about future procedures.  He is 9 years old.  Do you think a 9 year old would ever choose to have another surgery after the first 45?  Chapter closed.  We did a follow up burn visit with our old friends at Parkland just to receive some other opinions and see what our options were.  Parkland has a new doctor on the burn staff that trained at Shriner's in Galveston and had spent the last several years at Brooks Army Medical in San Antonio.  You can imagine what he has seen and experienced over the last few years with soldiers from the wars.  He evaluated Clay and made several suggestions that were both intriguing and encouraging. On February 25, 2013 we returned to Parkland for the first time and the new burn doctor did extensive work on Clay's left hand.  The morning of the surgery he came in pre-op and told us everything he was planning to do to the hand.  He was very upbeat and said, "this is going to be fun."  Clay looked at him like he was crazy and said  uh-uh.  He straightened two of Clays fingers out and put deep pins in three to hold them in place. He deepened the web space between the fingers and released the burn scars that were contracting in the palm of his little hand.  He also released some skin around the thumb and extended it to the out side part of his hand, all with the intent of giving Clay more grasp and improving the function on his left hand.  Clay was able to go home from Parkland the same day as the procedure and has to keep the pins in for six weeks.  He was extremely disappointed that he had to sit out the last weekend of his little dribbler basketball games.  It was very painful for him for several days but in typical Clay fashion he has accepted it and not let it slow him down much.  He had a follow up appointment today and his class was going on a field trip he did not want to miss so his mom let him ride the bus to Ft. Worth for a visit to the Omni and then picked him up and rushed him to Dallas for an appointment at burn clinic.  All and all Clay is doing well and has all the energy and likes and dislikes of a typical third grader.  The new doctor at Parkland is going to assume care for Clay and we will probably consider another procedure sometime this summer.  Hope this note finds everyone well.  Thank you to all who have cared and or prayed for Clay through the years.