All you want to know about Mackenzie's surgery--and more!

Some of you have asked us to explain Mackenzie’s surgeries in detail, so I thought I would write a short post to give you that information. So, here’s your warning: If you are not interested in the “gory” details, you can skip this post! ;)

The surgery Mackenzie had on June 26th was to release her tethered (“tied down”) spinal cord. In layman’s terms, your spinal cord is attached to the bottom of your spinal column by a piece of connective tissue called the filum terminale. This tissue acts like a rubber band, keeping the spinal cord in proper tension as the body grows in childhood. In patients with Ehlers Danlos this piece of tissue often malfunctions, creating too much tension on the cord. This can cause many neurological symptoms, including back pain, leg pain and weakness, numbness, tingling, etc. So, at the first surgery, Dr. Henderson opened Mackenzie’s spinal column through the sacral spine (the lowest part of her back), made about a 3” incision, cut out some bone to expose the cord, opened the dura (the tissue that surrounds the spinal fluid and spinal cord), and snipped the filum terminale thereby relieving the tension on her spinal cord.

The surgery that was performed Friday was on Mackenzie’s skull and neck. She had a decompression surgery to create more room at the base of her skull for her brain stem and cerebellum. This surgery was necessary because Mackenzie has a Chiari malformation, meaning her cerebellar tonsils (bottom of the cerebellum) descend into the spinal column. Dr. Henderson cut out a piece of Mackenzie’s skull measuring 2x4 cm. (She got to keep a piece of it if you want to see it!)

Also due to the Ehlers Danlos, Mackenzie has something called craniocervical instability and cranial settling. This has caused her skull to move out of position in relation to her neck and also settle down too far, putting more pressure on her brain stem and cerebellum. So, Dr. Henderson fused her head to her neck bones down to the third cervical vertebra. He used plates, screws, and rods, as well as bone from two of her ribs right below her left shoulder blade.

The incision for the decompression/fusion is about 5" long (starting at the base of her skull down to about half way on her neck), and the incision where Dr. Henderson took parts of two ribs is about 4" long. He had a plastic surgeon come in and close these, and they are very thin and should heal beautifully.

These two surgeries are not usually done in such quick succession, but it was necessary in Mackenzie’s case. She is thankful to have the surgeries behind her and is ready to move on to the recovery phase. She is doing well and is in very good spirits. We are all looking forward to coming home soon!

By the way, we did not play Scrabble today--maybe tomorrow!

Thank you for continuing to pray for us.

Love,
Lisa