Walking Spirit

After three surgeries over the course of the past week I'm finally home! Thanks to all of you for your prayers, positive energy, visits, and overall support. I'm a little weak, but otherwise feeling very healthy! I could have been home yesterday, but decided to push the PICC line issue with the Infectious Disease Doctors.

These are the people who were deciding my fate, in regards to treatment, but they had not seen me in person. My Ortho Doctors had spoken with them and allowed them to review the case, however, I wanted them to meet me in person to review the in depth details. They were going send me home with a PICC Line (a more permanent version of an IV that goes directly into the heart) with IV antibiotics for three to six weeks. (I've had a PICC before and had difficulties with it.)

After speaking with me they decided to send me home with two oral antibiotics that I will take for about three weeks. One is Levaquin, which is an old and well utilized drug. The other is Zyvox, which is a fairly new drug that has only been in use over the past four years. One of the most serious potential side effects that I need to watch out for is neropathy (tingling, numbness, or pain in the hands and feet (I only have to worry about the hands!). The other, in very rare cases, is death...caused by an allergic reaction causing the liver to produce poison. The fact is that most drugs could have a a similar side effect in rare cases. The only reason the Doctor even mentioned it is that they don't have a lot of history on this drug yet.

Right now, my only real concern is to deal with the GI issues brought on by my Narcotic pain killers. (Boo Constipation, Yay Narcotics!) Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to play with my cat. After 12 days he deserves the attention!

Breaking news: Jeremy is still at Wishard but hopefully he will be going home tomorrow. He cornered the infectious disease doctors this afternoon. He wants to tell you all the gory details when he gets home.

Thank goodness! Surgery went well, they cleaned out the wound quite well again, they closed up, and the pain is being managed much more effectively this time. Hopefully Jeremy will go home on Monday. He will be sent home on both an oral antibiotic and IV antibiotics for a few weeks. Now let's hope for no surprises!

The good news is that Jeremy is out of surgery and the tissue looked good and not infected. They packed the bone with a different type of antibiotic that is made out of a bone like material and will not have to be removed. It is supposed to aid in healing. The bad news is that there was a lot of fluid in the wound so the doctor put a wound vac on him and has left the incision site open. Jeremy will have to have MORE surgery on Friday. It's never ending. I'll let you know when there is more information on the next surgery.

Jeremy's second surgery will be tomorrow morning sometime. This is the surgery to remove the antibiotic beads. He hopes to come home on Wednesday.

FYI-we found out the hard way that children under 14 are not allowed in Jeremy's room-much to Madeline's disappointment. So-if you are planning on taking your kids for any reason better bring two adults so that you can switch off. Sorry!

I just talked with Jeremy. He said that he would really like to have visitors. However, he would appreciate it if you call first. The telephone number to his room is 630-8056. As he will be having another surgical procedure on Wednesday or Thursday my guess is that he will be in the hospital through next week. By the way-he also mentioned that since tomorrow is Father's Day he would prefer to not have guests. We are planning a family day. Thanks!

Jeremy came out of surgery around 11:15. The doctor cleaned out the infected areas. He said that the bone did not appear to be infected but they took a little of it to test anyway. They inserted antibiotic beads that will have to be removed in a second surgical procedure either Wednesday or Thursday. Mom reports that Jeremy is back in his room but not feeling as well as he did after the last surgery. The pain is being managed in a different way and apparently it's not as effective. Please continue to send positive thoughts his way. I will update again when there is more information.

Mom just called and reported that surgery will actually be tomorrow. The doctor would like Jeremy on antibiotics for a full 24 hours before going in. Of course Jeremy didn't know this until after he was awakened at 6:00 this morning by a nurse who was supposed to get him ready for surgery. He also didn't get breakfast as nothing was ordered for him because he wasn't supposed to eat after midnight. I'm sure you can imagine his mood. I'll update when I have new information.

Jeremy has developed an infection. He has been admitted to Wishard and is getting strong IV antibiotics. He will undergo surgery tomorrow to clean out the infection. I will update the blog when I have more information. Prayers are definitely needed. Thank you!

So far the recovery is going well, all things considered. As you know, my biggest fear was that I would come home from the hospital with an infection. Well, it's been a week since the surgery and I feel pretty good! I still have some pain, discomfort, and an occasional low grade fever, but the incisions look great and there haven't been any signs of infection! In fact, the incisions look so good that I thought about posting a picture of them. Lucky for you my roommate convinced me that pictures would be disturbing.

As Sarah reported, the surgery was very successful. The surgeon got all of the abnormal bone out of my hip and was able to save most of the muscle it had grown into. He also found two exposed nerve endings near the end of my femur, which he removed while he reshaped the bone. One would expect that having bone removed and reshaped would be extremely painful. One would be correct, however, the anesthesiologist (sp?) used a new technology for a nerve block.

The nerve block was administered through medicine ball connected to a catheter that went into my back about four inches to the left of my spine. The catheter stayed in for three days, and I was able to adjust the dosage of the nerve block based on my needs over the duration of my hospital stay. This, plus the morphine IV helped me manage my pain. For the most part I was able to keep the pain down to a minimum.

The first night in the hospital I had problems keeping the pain under control after I went to sleep (because I couldn't press the morphine button). The nurse neglected to tell me that I had a prescription for percocet to take before I went to bed. The next day and night were a lot better, thanks to the pain meds! The third day was a good day too, until my IV blew out. None of the nurses were able to get an IV started in an acceptable location (anywhere but my wrists, elbows, or hands) so I had to give up the morphine at that point. That night was a little difficult, but I was able to keep the pain under control. The next day the nerve block had to be removed. Since there wasn't anything connected to my body (IV's or Catheter's), and my incisions were doing well, there really wasn't any point in staying another night. So, on Monday afternoon I came home.

I felt so good on Monday that I acted like everything was normal when I got home. Unfortunately I didn't drink enough and got really dehydrated on Tuesday morning. It was a good thing that Mom came over to spend the day with me, because I felt really sick, and needed my Mom. Mom has been coming over while my roommate is working, to keep me company and help with anything I might need. I've really enjoyed the time to bond with her. Dad came over today and is coming tomorrow, so we're getting in our time as well.

Overall I'm feeling much better. In fact, there are times when I feel so good that I have to remind myself that I've just had major surgery. If I don't, I have a tendency to over do it, which leads to a difficult night (from a pain perspective). The biggest difficulty over the past week has been dealing with the withdrawal symptoms from the morphine and the nerve block, in addition to the very uncomfortable (and somewhat disgusting) side effects from the narcotic pain killers I'm still taking.

Even though I feel good, I've got to take it easy. Over the next several weeks I'll be focusing my time on increasing the range of motion in my hip. The first step is to spend as much time as possible laying on my stomach. I tried that last night, and it hurt like a ... well, I'll just say it hurt.

If you've been watching the news, or if you live in Indiana, you're aware that we've been getting a lot more than our share of rain. I took the pictures above after a storm that knocked out our power last night. There were no special effects used in these shots. Now I know what my neighborhood would look like if it was on Mars!