Bionics in the News

Two well known magazines recently featured bionic advancements in their pages. The January 2010 edition of National Geographic and the February 2010 edition of Fast Company. Follow the links to see what they have to say. Very interesting indeed.

Hand Surgery

On Sunday, Suzanne had the operation on her right hand, as described in the December 7th post. The operation took seven hours and was largely performed under a microscope, because nerves and blood vessels needed to be moved. She recovered in the ICU for Sunday and Monday, but was moved to a regular nursing floor on Tuesday afternoon, where she will stay until released on Friday. She has a room to herself because the temperature must remain high to keep her blood vessels dilated, to ensure the newly attached vessels do not clot. In addition to that, her right arm is under a hot-air blower blanket. The net result of this means she is uncomfortably hot and drenched with sweat. However, the surgeon insists that the heat remain until she leaves the hospital to maximize the blood flow to the hand and migrated tissue.

Stents and Stones

Throwing a kink into the planned operation, Suzanne had a kidney stone reveal itself right before Christmas. The choice to have it removed immediately meant that she would have it out before the trip to Massachusetts but side effects would linger into the planned hand surgery timeline. It will now take place on the 17th and today the ureteral stent was removed, which was in place to ensure the flow through the affected ureter. The new date doesn't impact any leg operations, as none are currently scheduled. Other than that, Happy New Year, to our readers. We hope to soon report the last operation some time in the coming months.