Only One Good Arm

Hannah in my wheel chair!




My leg has atrophied and there is a shot of my foot.
I'll spare you pics of my arm! They are disgusting!
Well my foot is not pleasant either but my arm is much worse!


Hey guys! I am sorry that I have not kept up my blog...I only have one good arm right now and can only type with that one arm.

My surgery was exactly 2 weeks and a day ago and I am doing much better. After my surgery I begged them to let me go home soon (obviously when they felt it was best)...I went home Thursday, June 19th. When the nurses told me that the doctors wrote the discharge papers that was music to my ears!

I have a splint on my left arm (donor area), stitches on my upper leg (skin graft for my wrist), splint on my right leg, and an IV running in my right arm (IV antibiotics 3x/day)....all 4 limbs have something going on! I have a wheel chair (for longer distances) and a Roll-About (to get along in my home). I have an IV home care nurse that comes once a week to draw blood and a wound care nurse that has been coming 1-2 times per week to check and change the dressings 0n my wounds. When she doesn't come Josh changes them. They are to be changed everyday.

One of my best friends, Hannah Lucero, and her husband Mac, came to visit/help June 21-23. They live in Lynchburg, VA which is about 3 hours away. The boys went to the NRA to shoot and me and Hannah watched a chick flick (Fool's Gold--not that great!) We had a great time with them!

This past Friday I had a friend/co-worker, Cathy Cody come to visit...she brought flowers and yummy parfaits for me and Josh. We chatted and caught up on school news and life. Then that evening our dear friends, Paul and Barb Wert from church, came to visit and brought dinner from Famous Dave's (bbq). It was delicious! We really enjoyed visiting with them and greatly appreciated the dinner!

Finally, my mother-in-law Brenda, flew in today for 2 weeks to help out. Josh are thankful that she could come. My mom came 2 different times to help and it was wonderful so I know this will be great too!


I'll write more later!

Surgery Tomorrow

Hey everyone! I just wanted to let you all know that I am having surgery tomorrow morning at 7:30am. They will come and get me at about 6:30am...so early!

I am excited about starting my recovery process. I am also nervous about waking up with all sorts of parts on my body hurting....no so thrilled about that!

I got final word that I will be in ICU for 48 hours and then hopefully back to a private room where I can get back to emailing and updating my blog.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and prayers.

Much love to you all!

Greasy Hair, Pain Killers, No Surgery Today

Greasy Hair:
Josh was so sweet last night! After a long day of working and staying up late the night before, Josh came prepared to the hospital with shampoo, conditioner, hair dryer, and my absolute favorite...the Chi (my hair straightener). I am itching to give you an analogy of just how greasy my hair was, but I will spare you the details. Needless to say, my hair had not been looking so hot and I had had enough! I wanted to feel remotely clean when I went to surgery the next morning. We both squeezed into my tiny hospital bathroom (which is in no way handicap accessible and we are not the smallest people... you know), and he lathered up my hair and helped me shampoo and condition it! You have no idea how good it felt! I finally got it dried and straightened and was ready for bed.

Pain Killers:
I could not get comfortable last night for multiple reasons: the hospital sheets have got to be 25 count sheets or less, I lay all day, and my hands/fingers/legs/feet/entire body were aching! I finally asked for a little assistance....Benadryl and my fav, Dilaudid! I slept from 12am-5am with no problems or bathroom breaks! It was fantastic!

No surgery today:
Basically, the doctors came in at 8:15 this morning to examine my foot and decide whether or not I needed surgery (debridement) today and also to discuss the different scenarios for my re-constructive foot surgery on Friday. Survey said: No surgery today. I was thrilled! The wound looked good and the cultures still came back negative. On the other hand, if the biopsy does not come back tomorrow with good news, then my Friday surgery will be turned into a debridement and re-constructive surgery will be pushed back. Also, I found out that I am anemic (likely due to my chronic illness), so they had to give me a blood transfusion today (2 units) to be sure that I had enough blood for the planned surgery on Friday.

Please continue to pray and specifically that God will grant the doctors wisdom as they are searching and analyzing the best scenario for the re-constructive surgery on my foot. The micro-surgeon explained that he has done hundreds of surgeries similar, however my wound is smaller than most, but more complicated because of where it is located on my foot.

Debridements of the bone are painful!

I have gotta tell all of you...cleaning, scraping, cutting the bone is extremely painful! Yesterday, I had a surgery where they did just that...a debridement. When I woke up after surgery I was in excruciating pain! They gave me some kind of pain medication...nothing happened....then Morphine...nothing happened. Finally, I asked them for Dilaudid (which is a little bit stronger than Morphine) and that, in combination with Vicodin, did the job!

When I got back from surgery my dept. chair, Kathy Flinn, was here to visit. It was so nice to see her and we got to chat it up a little. It is hard being here at the hospital all day alone. I suppose this is a great time to draw near to God....it is just hard though.

Well, tomorrow (Wed.) I am having another surgery (debridement). I am not looking forward to it at all. My body is extremely exhausted! I have to remember that God says He will not give me more than I can handle. I feel like I cannot handle much more. I need to trust Him.

Georgetown Hospital

I can't believe I started a blog but I felt it would be easier for people to keep up that way. Just a disclaimer: I am not the world's most talented writer so don't be alarmed!

Most people know that I have been having a lot of problems with my foot. How? Well, it all started with Josh throwing knives at me when I made him angry! :-) No really, I dropped a clean Henkels knife on my foot, cutting the tendon that runs to the dominant toe, completely in half.

I have now had a total of 7 surgeries since May 1. (I will spare the details unless you ask). It has been very crazy to say the least! I am currently at Georgetown Hospital and at this point it is simply a "waiting game" and we are going day by day. I had surgery (bone biopsy) this past Friday, which was originally supposed to be an outpatient surgery. When I woke up in the Post-Op room the doctors informed me that I would be staying for a bit due to a serious infection in my bone! Basically, the surface of my bone was rotting. They cut the bone and got rid of the erosion (rotting). Furthermore, my tendon was completely shot and was rotting away as well. Needless to say they took out the tendon so I currently have NO tendon!

I will have a series of debridements (debridement is a medical term referring to the removal of dead, damaged, or infected tissue to improve the healing potential of the remaining healthy tissue), which will be done in the OR room. SHOCKER! After the bone is clean and the doctors feel ready and confident, I will have "re-constructive" surgery on my foot. The plan is to take the tendon and artery from my wrist (each person has an extra tendon and artery in his wrist), bone from hip, and skin from thigh, and plug it all into my foot. This process is a 7-8 hour surgery!

Tomorrow I have another surgery (a debridement). Please keep me and Josh in your prayers as all of this has been very difficult, not just for me, but also for Josh. :-)