Today was almost discharge day. They are ready to get my dad out of rehab. The average stay at Sunny View for an orthopedic patient is something like 8.2 days. So as you can imagine my dad is not doing much for their numbers. Although he is not your average ortho patient with a joint replacement. Anyway, I will attempt to give you the facts of the day without muddling it too much with my emotions (this is my third try so I can't promise you anything). It is all very frustrating since from the beginning of this whole ordeal my mom has been on people to "just do their job". Well, people don't always "just do their job".
The big toe that was broken in the accident has become infected down to the bone and nobody seemed to "notice" even though we discuss it with every nurse on duty. Today, when they were ready to sweep my dad right out the front door the Infectious Disease Doctor put a stop to everything. Ultimately, it was my mom who forced him to take a look and give her some answers. Once he x-rayed it he determined it is infected down to the bone. The nail needs to be removed and cultured to find out what type of infection it is so they can begin treating it.
We knew the nail needed to come off about a week ago when my dad starting visiting some of his surgeons for follow-up appointments. Both the ortho and plastic surgeons recommended having a podiatrist look at it and remove the nail. The doctor wrote an order for this which was ignored by the nurses at the rehab facility. The nurses told my mom that they can not do that here and handed the order back to her. This was on Monday. Now almost 5 days have gone by with the infection having time to worsen! Let's hope that they are able to clear up this infection and that it is not more staph. If people had "just done there job" in the beginning the toe could already have begun the healing process. Today when Dr. Leibers told the nurse to call and make the appt. she jumped and got one right away for later this afternoon.
It has been a roller coaster of a day, and I did not even mention the fact that there was NO discharge plan written for him, the podiatrist appt. finally scheduled for today was changed 3 times and he did not make any of them, the X-ray tech dragged and dropped the walker on his lower left leg where the plate is and may have damaged it, and my parents sat around for 5 hours before anyone bothered to say that they were probably not going home today! Ahhh, it's so crazy. As my mom said, "You can't make this stuff up, people wouldn't believe it!"
As always, we have to be thankful for how far my dad has come. It really is a miracle and a tribute to the unbelielvably strong man that he is. We are also so thankful to have friends and family like you and for all of your prayers, kind words, strength and positive thoughts. It helps us tremendously to get through these tough times.
Good night for now,
Stacy
Friday, November 30, 2007
Monday, November 26, 2007
The latest news...
Okay, so there is a lot of news to report since it has been well over a week since the last blog...a lot of good and some not so good.
The not so good: the staph infection has returned, or more likely was never completely cleared up in the first place. They have been treating that orally with a very strong antibiotic and we are all hoping that it will finally be gone soon. We are not sure how long he will have to be on this dose of antibiotic. He has a good infectious disease doctor who sees him at Sunnyview and we are thankful for that. We feel confident that he will continue to monitor this situation closely.
Joe has been pretty nauseous in the last few days. There is a possibility that this has been caused by the antibiotics. They are going to do some very specific blood work (which they have been doing for the last 10 days anyway) tomorrow to make sure they are not overlooking something more serious. There is a chance that being on these strong antibodies for a long period of time could cause damage to the liver or pancreas.
The good: My dad continues to do great with all of his therapy. He has walked more and more everyday. He is beginning to bring the left foot a little bit in front of the right instead of just shuffling it up to meet the other. He has become very proficient with the walker and getting himself in and out of the wheelchair. He has done the stairs a few more times and even mastered some ramps with his walker! He continues to make us all very proud!
His last few doctor visits were really good. He saw his orthopedic surgeon who is thrilled with the way all of his bones look and the way he is progressing. He did say somewhere down the line they will have to go in and do a hip replacement on the right leg. They did the best they could with what they had to work with, but the "hip" he has now will not have a full range of motion.
The plastic surgeon said they will probably be able to cut away some of the incision at the same time as the hip replacement. I am not sure if this means they will be able to remove part of the "football" that is now part of his hip. The "football" is what Robb has named the new hip. It looks like he has a big bandage under his clothes on that right hip bet it is just the hip with some new calcified tissue. Yes, my dad has declared he is O.K. with his new "bubble butt".
In general, the plastic surgeon is very pleased with all of his surgical sites as well. He is not overly concerned with the fluid that has built up in one of the elbows. They are doing a lot of work right now trying to "walk" the old guy around right now. He would like my dad to get started right away on some hand therapy. The right hand may not regain as much strength or feeling as the left. However, he did say he thinks that they will be able to restore the left hand to 80% of what it was before. Yes, he said he believes that my dad will be able to swing the golf club again! That will not be for some time, but it is encouraging none the less.
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at Sunnyview with the entire family. We did not have the traditional meal, but that was not really the point this year. We obviously were all thankful for having the time to spend with each other and the second chance my dad has been given. We are also thankful to have friends and family like you who have been so supportive through your prayers, strength, and well wishes.
Happy and Safe Holidays,
Stacy
The not so good: the staph infection has returned, or more likely was never completely cleared up in the first place. They have been treating that orally with a very strong antibiotic and we are all hoping that it will finally be gone soon. We are not sure how long he will have to be on this dose of antibiotic. He has a good infectious disease doctor who sees him at Sunnyview and we are thankful for that. We feel confident that he will continue to monitor this situation closely.
Joe has been pretty nauseous in the last few days. There is a possibility that this has been caused by the antibiotics. They are going to do some very specific blood work (which they have been doing for the last 10 days anyway) tomorrow to make sure they are not overlooking something more serious. There is a chance that being on these strong antibodies for a long period of time could cause damage to the liver or pancreas.
The good: My dad continues to do great with all of his therapy. He has walked more and more everyday. He is beginning to bring the left foot a little bit in front of the right instead of just shuffling it up to meet the other. He has become very proficient with the walker and getting himself in and out of the wheelchair. He has done the stairs a few more times and even mastered some ramps with his walker! He continues to make us all very proud!
His last few doctor visits were really good. He saw his orthopedic surgeon who is thrilled with the way all of his bones look and the way he is progressing. He did say somewhere down the line they will have to go in and do a hip replacement on the right leg. They did the best they could with what they had to work with, but the "hip" he has now will not have a full range of motion.
The plastic surgeon said they will probably be able to cut away some of the incision at the same time as the hip replacement. I am not sure if this means they will be able to remove part of the "football" that is now part of his hip. The "football" is what Robb has named the new hip. It looks like he has a big bandage under his clothes on that right hip bet it is just the hip with some new calcified tissue. Yes, my dad has declared he is O.K. with his new "bubble butt".
In general, the plastic surgeon is very pleased with all of his surgical sites as well. He is not overly concerned with the fluid that has built up in one of the elbows. They are doing a lot of work right now trying to "walk" the old guy around right now. He would like my dad to get started right away on some hand therapy. The right hand may not regain as much strength or feeling as the left. However, he did say he thinks that they will be able to restore the left hand to 80% of what it was before. Yes, he said he believes that my dad will be able to swing the golf club again! That will not be for some time, but it is encouraging none the less.
We had a nice Thanksgiving dinner at Sunnyview with the entire family. We did not have the traditional meal, but that was not really the point this year. We obviously were all thankful for having the time to spend with each other and the second chance my dad has been given. We are also thankful to have friends and family like you who have been so supportive through your prayers, strength, and well wishes.
Happy and Safe Holidays,
Stacy
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