We are still here!

Hi All, sorry we have been out of touch. Did you all think that my dad got up and discharged himself from Albany Medical Center? Not yet, but he is getting a little squirmy at times. We have had computer troubles so bear with us.

My dad finally had his plastic surgery on friday. They took skin from his left thigh and used it on his right thigh and both lower legs. The plastic surgeons are engouraged about how things went. Everything will remain bandaged until wednesday when the doctors will uncover the wounds and see how things look. In the mean time my dad is taking a little vacation from all of his leg exercises (per the doctors orders) and letting the skin grafts heal. They did not have to do any muscle grafting on my dads legs. Everybody keep your fingers crossed that the skin grafts look good on wednesday.

The numbness in his fingers (that he has been feeling since almost right after his accident) is still present and getting worse. He is losing a lot of strength in his left hand and some in his right. We are finally getting some questions answered about that. My dad had a painful EMG which he compared to Bruce Willis getting electrical cables put on him and then having a wet sponge thrown at him. I think the man has been watching to many action movies. In all honesty it was a long and painful procedure that did involve eletrical currents. The doctors will decide on thursday or friday if they will need to do another surgery to correct the nerve damage or if they will try therapy first and maybe surgery in the future.

My dad is very, very happy to have all of the hardware out of his mouth. Dr. D. (the ENT surgeon) is pretty happy with the way my dad's jaw is looking considering how long he had to wait to try to fix it. His jaw is still sore but he is doing his exercises and can open it a little wider and it is getting easier to eat cheezits and lots of other foods. His feeding tube is out and he is now able to try to eat what he wants and is definately filling out a little more. He is really starting to look and act more like his old self.

He has about 6 more days left of the antibiotics he is taking to treat the staph infection.

My mom has a lot more detail on all of the above that she will blog when she can. The coming week will be busy and lots of doctors will be in so my mom (aka Dr. Ferraro) will probably be at the hospital and not on the computer.

However, we still need the strength and positive energy of everyone around us. So, please stay with us on this unbelievable journey. My dad is doing a remarkable job so far but we all know the road ahead is long and we have no doubt that my dad is going to forge ahead stronger than ever. All of your thoughts and wishes continue to carry us and my dad forward, so thank you all.

Dana