Ok - so I've been told people are actually following this blog for Josh's information...and I need to update.
It's been a while because well there is a lot going on, with Josh home there is so much to do to keep kids under control and of course the bathroom is still being worked on. Here's the update...We got home on Sunday. He's been in a lot of pain, but if he keeps on the schedule of pain medication it's not so bad. He is on 20mg of Oxycontin 2 times a day and 10mg of
Percocet every 4-6 hours as needed...and it is NEEDED.
Monday and Wednesday I took the kids to the YMCA for a couple of hours to give Josh a break, and myself. I didn't think Josh being home would throw off our schedule so badly but it did, we're trying to figure out what will work while he's home.
On Thursday Josh had his first post operative surgery with Dr. Horton (the devil himself). His appointment was at 8:45am, we were the second people in the waiting room. We dropped the kids off with Andrea around 8am. The waiting room slowly started filling up, until there were no seats left and people on crutches and in braces were standing in the halls, it was ridiculous. We met the Workman's Comp. Nurse that will be following Josh's case, her name is Vicki and she was pretty nice.
We finally got into a room (after I complained) at 10am. A nurse came in and started putting on gloves and getting out the staple remover kit...Josh and I looked at each other and I asked her if she was planning on taking the staples out and she said Yes...then we informed her that it had only been 6 days since his surgery...she looked at us funny then said, oh yea we don't want to take them out just yet. COME ON people don't you read the charts?? We would come to find out, they don't.
Josh had heard from Carlos the representative from the company that makes the rod that the Dr. had set it for 6cm, Josh leg only needs to be lengthened 3.6cm!! While we were waiting Josh asked to see a copy of the Operative report, sure enough it says, "the patients length discrepancy is believed to be 6am..." Josh was furious. He's studied this surgery for over 3 years (that's how long we've fought Workman's Comp. to get the surgery for Josh, first they wouldn't approve it saying it was cosmetic and then we told them we didn't want Horton because he was an ankle specialist and had never done one of these surgeries before) so he knows what is supposed to happen when and what "proper procedure" is. He asked Dr. Horton, why was this set for 6cm? Dr. Horton got defensive and said we'd just take a look at the X-Rays and see what was going on. He left the room and Josh went back for X-Rays.
The X-Rays indeed showed that Josh had already lengthened about 12mm. That is a little much considering the ideal situation is 1mm a day and we were 6 days out. The Dr. said he wanted Josh to not exercise at all and now since the monitor wasn't working he has to go back every week to check the length. Josh knew that if the leg wasn't exercised at all for more than 3 days there is a possibility that the bone could grow back and that it won't lengthen anymore. When he tried to ask the Dr. about this the Dr. just basically said I'm the Dr. listen to me.
Then Vicki tried to ask why the rod was set for 6cm and the Dr. basically snapped that this is more of an art than a science and that we would just have to watch the x-rays and when Josh felt like his leg was long enough he would do ANOTHER SURGERY and pull the rod out and replace it with what he called a 'walking rod.' From Josh's research he found that the rod should stop
lengthening at the amount set and then you wait for the bone to heal
completely before the patient has the OPTION of having the rod removed.
I know you're thinking medical malpractice...we are too! We had our lawyer over that day to talk to him about all of this. He said it depends on the actual outcome, if the Dr. can fix his mistake (although he won't admit he made one) then we don't have a case. Both Josh and I are upset because it means another surgery in 3-4 weeks we were not planning and a longer recovery time. I just hope he's able to walk by the time the baby gets here in late Oct. or early Nov.
The whole office was mismanaged, it was horrible. I ended up cursing at the scheduling person because she snapped at me and I was so upset by everything (we won't get into that story...let's just say it wasn't pretty). I was actually shaking when we left the office because I was so mad.
Needless to say Josh is pretty upset, but at this point we have to take it day by day. Give him a call, send a card, just let him know he's in your prayers.
I'll update next Thursday with what ends up happening that day, unless something major happens between now and then.
Waiting for the Dr. to come in on Thursday 6/25/09 - our
appt. time was 8:45am we didn't get put in a room until 10am!!
Apparently the Morphine Josh was given in the hospital made him itch - he did this in his sleep...yucky
This is a picture of his whole leg - This is the first time I saw it on Wednesday when he was able to finally get down to take a shower. The bathroom remodel upstairs was supposed to be done before he got home from the hospital, they're still working on it...hopefully only a couple more days. ******NO Josh is not using the toliet in this picture, the lid was down...geez people...he can't stand very long and he was getting tired of me taking pictures while I should have been helping him get dressed and back upstairs, he just had to sit on something and the easiest thing was the toliet*******
Lower Scar - a little blurry I apologize
Upper Scar
Another angle of the upper scar
