What a day.
Jeremy was wheeled down for surgery at around 5:15 or so yesterday evening. He came back up to the room at about 1:45 in the morning. The surgery itself lasted about five and a half hours.
They did both heels. The right one actually looked better than they expected, and they were able to (mostly) piece it back together. The left one was a whole other story. The orthopedic surgeon who worked on Jer has performed about 1100 of these surgeries. He said that Jer's left heel made his Top Ten list of worst injuries to the heel he has ever seen.
Yee haw.
Anyway, the heel was far too badly damaged for them to be able to just piece it back together, so they ended up having to use pins to anchor the whole joint to the ankle in a procedure called a triple subtalar fusion. In a few months those bones will grow together. This fusion adds much more stability to the joint, and there's less likely to be pain in that side as well. What this means, though, is that Jer will no longer be able to move his left foot from side to side at all-- just up and down. So basically he's going to have to learn how to balance again once he's up and around, as he can no longer rely on the side-to-side motion of his feet (or foot) to do that. If his right heel gives him a lot of pain later on, he may have to go back and have the same fusion surgery on that heel as well.
Jer is doing okay right now-- the aftermath of the surgery was really, really painful and he spent most of the day today just sleeping. He's on a lot of heavy duty pain meds right now, but they're going to start weaning him down off of those tomorrow. They are talking about sending him home as early as Saturday. I'm not terribly excited about that idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which that since it's Labor Day weekend if he had issues with his pain management the only place that would be open for him to go to get his meds adjusted would be the Emergency Room, and the only way he'd be able to get there would be via ambulance since we're still working on the car issue. Anyway, I'm hoping they'll hold off on releasing him until some time next week, but we'll just have to see.
Ordinally this is where I would be inserting something funny to say, but I think I lost my sense of humor somewhere around two o'clock this afternoon when all the caffeine I'd been drinking wore off. Since I got about three hours of sleep last night and then spent the whole day today until about six in the evening running all the errands we would need to get done before he gets back just in case they do release Jer on Saturday, I'm rather bushed.
Glad he's got that over and done with!
~Jess
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4 years ago
9 comments:
I'm so glad that he's okay and that the surgery seems to have been largely successful. Y'know, it's one thing for all of us to keep saying, over the last few weeks, "Hey Jess, you've got a great attitude, we really admire you, and you're gonna get through this." But it's another thing when you actually have to get through it, and everything about it is so hard. I really wish I could do something more than just find new ways to say "You go girl" -- I wish I could do something that actually makes it easier, that lessens your burden. But I can't. Well, you go girl. You'll get through this.
Prayers answered and more continuing.
No chance for some inpatient rehab? Even if he is not standing, lots of exercise potential to keep him healthy. In-home PT? (Generically called home health.) Ask.
Barbara
Great news.
Hope they do keep him in until after the holiday weekend it will be less stress on you. Hope you get your car figured out for the 2 sets of wheels.
So glad to see that everything is going good.
Hugs to you and for Connor.
I am so glad that everything went much better than we all thought. We are all here to help you out with anything you need. Keep your chin up. Your great attitude is what is helping Jer do so well. Well, that and lots of chocolate chip cookies! I will suppy you three will all the cookies you can eat! See you soon. Lots of Love, Mama Bear
I am glad the surgery is over and it went well. I will continue to pray for Jeremy's recovery and pain management. Also for you and Connor as you adjust to all of the new stuff being thrown at you. Hope you are able to get some rest.
I'm glad they were able to do both heels at once, rather than two surgeries. I'm sending all my positive thoughts and prayers that they'll keep him over Labor Day Weekend, and also that the whole van situation gets sorted out soon.
Keep taking deep breaths...lots and lots of deep breaths.
Like the first poster (Julia)said, I wish I could think of something I could do to make this easier or better. I've sent some things your way that won't fix a thing, but I hope brighten your day a little bit.
Still praying.
Can they move him to a physical therapy rehab hospital instead of releasing him to go home? There he could learn ways to deal with these challenging physical issues before going home. That's what happened when my mother had a stroke, a week in the rehab hospital was really helpful.
My prayers are with you guys! My car is currently at an actual mechanic so possibly the POS will be fixed? Then maybe when he's less medicated I can finally come visit and be all creepy to Jer.... I think we all know in our hearts that it's what he needs.
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