pollyism 444:

we can be so very glad that awful week is over...

We are doing better this week... Still feeling the effect of 2 surgeries over two days to repair all the damage (a total of more than 7 hours and multiple tendon/ligament graphs...) But, he is healing now... though more slowly than he would like... The normal rehab you would expect after knee injuries had to be postponed because we discovered over the weekend after the post surgery Xrays were taken that his right knee hemorrhaged so severely through fractures from the center of the kneecap that this ends up being a much different healing process than straight knee repair/replacement... His injuries seem to indicate that the right knee was kind of "smashed" during the impact as well... but there was not actually a loss of bone structure, just multiple fractures... this too is better than it could have been in such an impact... and again a miraculous lack of damage... I have said many time, over the last week, that we will gratefully accept the many miracles we were given, and I will keep saying it!

Anyway... the best news is that Monday I was able to bring hubby home with equipment (a double raised leg wheelchair, transfer aids, etc) and home care nursing orders for anything family cannot do for him. Now his job is to heal for about 3-6 more weeks... Until a certain level of healing takes place he cannot put any weight on the right leg. He can fortunately put weight on the left leg for pivot transfers into the chair, and does quite well with that process... Our house is actually pretty well set up for his needs and home was the best place to bring him, since he could not start rehab... here he is resting better than in any other place and I can get the much needed rest I need after the last week+...

We are still sorting out all the insurance stuff... as he will be off work for at least 3 months, worse case is probably 6... He is already starting to go a little stir crazy, so we are working on finding things for him to do to keep busy... for now the pain meds and healing process both force him to sleep more than he would normally... (to tell you the truth, his knees look like road maps from all the initial injuries and repair surgeries... but he is not in a lot of pain, he is down to Percocet every few hours...) As you could see in the picture... he has braces on both legs... is not allowed to even bend the right knee and the left is limited to 30 degrees of motion... also, no exercising until more healing takes place... he will need to learn to "walk" again, and will be dealing with muscle and other soft tissue atrophy by the time he can exercise the legs... right now he is limited to butt-tucks and toe/calf pulls to stretch his achilles tendons... despite how hard and long his rehab will be we continue to be exceptionally grateful for the Lord's blessings... he is still here with us and we feel blessed that all his injuries are recoverable... we know this could have been so much worse... We've been through tough times before and we will make it through this, and we will be stronger for it, I am sure... Not a lesson we wanted, but one I guess we can use...

The kids have all been great and we are managing pretty well considering... Our support system from the ward is wonderful... We are at the "this too shall pass" stage... not a bad place to be, while you wait on one part of a healing process... ~PA