Don’t Lose Your Head

Amacker’s spinal and brain surgeon is a hotshot, very smart, very easy to talk to, and very confident doctor. He is, however, noticeably befuddled by Amacker’s “bobble-head” condition. He consulted every team and every senior doctor in the area, and after much deliberation decided that Amacker should undergo immediate surgery to secure her skull to her spine. He helped us understand the risks, and the need, and we felt comfortable with this decision.

Amacker underwent surgery Sunday morning to attach a plate fixing, with screws, her skull to her spine. This would keep her from damaging the spinal cord and the brain stem and thus helped prevent possible paralysis. The surgery went very well and the surgeons were quite pleased with themselves. They say she has very strong bones and the plate took well.

Unfortunately, the plate is a lifetime placement, and will restrict her side-to-side head movement dramatically, and also her up-and-down motion of her head noticably. The surgeon also had to push her head back down on her neck to line things up again, and there is a small chance that the bones will not fuse together, but that is something we hope won’t happen because the results might be catastrophic. The doctors have given us every reason to focus on the very strong chance that the bones will fuse together well.

As Amacker is immobilized right now, they have not put any other equipment on her head, but when she becomes more active, she may also have to wear a halo contraption to limit her head movement. She would probably only have to wear that for a month or so.