July 2nd 2018

The ambulance ride sucked something fierce. You would think that they would have a nice suspension in ambulances, but no, they don't. Every bump we went over was a wave of pain above and beyond the continuous pain I was in. I couldn't straighten my leg, so they jammed pillows under the bend to try to keep me comfortable. Try being the keyword. Upon arriving at the hospital, after cutting my pants off, they proceeded to check my leg out and give me a shot for the pain. One more shot and I was off to a CT scan and X-rays. The pink plastic you see in the picture was how they were transferring me from bed to table and back. The X-ray table was the worst part of the evening. They wanted to straighten out my leg, but that wasn't happening due to my screaming. I remember hearing a nurse say, "Didn't they give him anything for pain?"  Someone came in and gave me another shot that started to bring the pain down enough that they could get some X-rays with my knee bent that would work for the doctors.

Sometime after midnight, they moved me to a dark room where a young male and female nurse were prepping me for surgery. The female nurse had to cut off my underwear and was cutting on the inside of my leg, and I said, "Hey, can't you cut on the side because you're making me nervous?" She laughed and said Don't worry. They washed me up and gave me some more pain relief. Then we heard that my surgery wouldn't be until the morning of July fourth. The X-ray picture is from the night I arrived. You can see the break in the lower left.

July 4th 2018 MMC 4th floor

I was in quite a bit of pain after I woke up, but we got it down that evening enough so that I wasn't moaning all the time. I heard that it went great, and I had this great piece of metal artwork sticking out of my leg. There were two pins, each going into both my upper thigh and lower calf. It held my leg straight and kept it from bending. My understanding is that it kept everything straight and gave a little space so the bones wouldn't rub and cause more damage. The best part was that it made for a great leg holder. I or others could pick up the leg by the brace and move it. People didn't really want to do it that way, but it really caused me more pain. The X-ray was taken later, but it shows the pins connected to the bone.

July 5th - 10th MMC 4th floor

During this time, many people came by and visited, sent balloons, cards, candy bouquets, flower arrangements, and got in contact with me to wish me a speedy recovery. I even had a visit from a very old friend that I had not seen in 30-plus years. It reminded me that people were rooting for me and helped me make it through each day. I had a lot of great nurses and techs during this time who took great care of me.

I'm not sure which day it started but we started doing Physical Therapy (PT) and Occupational Therapy (OT) twice a day a couple days after the surgery. PT focuses on strength and being able to perform the body's normal movement (walking, bending, moving to other places). OT focuses on performing daily activities. Examples of OT are getting to the bathroom, showering, cleaning yourself up, and performing normal daily activities. While there is a lot of crossover, there are distinct differences. One of the first things we tried was just trying to get out of bed and into the chair. Who knew just standing up in a walker and hopping 3 feet to a chair would be so difficult and painful? Because I really couldn't move much at first, PT and OT lapped over most of the time as it was all just getting me up and moving short distances. All of the people helping me were great, but there was one who made me really believe I could do it, and I was able to do far more while working with her. All of these sessions were really painful so it's really hard to get past your brain's instinct to protect/guard itself. Once you trust that they are not making you do something that really cannot do, it gets easier. The hardest and most painful things I did in therapy was the day I actually made it to the bathroom to use the toilet.

July 11th - 18th 2018 The Bridge

My insurance company decided that I should not enter MMC's rehab wing and that I should go to The Bridge Care Suites. I think this was partially because I had another surgery coming up. My first night here was.... hmmm, I will come back and fill that word in later. They put me in a wheelchair, rolled me into a van, and delivered me to my new room at the Bridge. When PT evaluated me, I think I spooked them a bit. Where my room at MMC was big and roomy, my room here was cramped, and it seemed like everything was an inch away from hitting my leg. So during the eval, I was pretty cautious, and I had also gone through two pretty tiring PTs before I left MMC. When they took me into the bathroom (where the only thing I could have gotten to is the sink) my leg buckled once and they cut the eval short and put me in bed. After that, we had some additional issues, and I ended up going to sleep early that evening in hopes of a better day to come.

It was strange going from somewhere I had a nurse or tech checking in with me every couple of hours to sometimes double that. We had problems with my meds here, and they couldn't get some of them right away. I had the same issue in the hospital, but it took even longer here. I soon learned that the wings were definitely understaffed, and that is why it took longer for some things. PT was pretty hands-off the first several days

July 19th - 31st, 2018 Back to Memorial Hospital

I had the external fixator removed, and they put in the hardware. Some of the worst pain I have ever experienced was coming out of that surgery.

My last week was in the rehab wing at MMC. Over the last 2 days, they taught me how to shower myself and hop up and down on one leg, the four steps I would have at home.

They kicked me out with no more PT due to having an appointment with the doctor who had performed the previous two surgeries. His office was directly across the street. SMH. After that, I was sent home, with no weight bearing on my left leg and no more physical therapy until October.

October 2019 - I ended up with a sinus infection that was caused by an infected tooth. I was referred to an oral surgeon, who, once he saw the X-ray, referred me to a better oral surgeon because it was so close to my sinus cavity. I had to have the tooth removed, so I didn't have any infections before my leg hardware removal. The tooth shattered, and they made two separate attempts to remove it all.

Towards the end of October, I went back to work. I will be forever grateful for the clients who went out of their way to help me get things done. Whether it was climbing ladders for me or getting under a desks, they never said a word. I even had an electric wheelchair for a short time. 

November 19th, 2019, Hardware removal at Barnes. Surgery went great; they released me to go home, so I got loaded into the back of the car with my leg propped up on some pillows. Once we got home, and I went to lift my leg to get out, I ended up with a bloody hand. We got inside, and the bandage had bled through. I called the hospital, and they said to unwrap the Ace bandage and take a photo. The bandage underneath was halfway soaked, and I was advised to go to the emergency room. I asked if they meant a local one or back to Barnes. She stated that I wouldn't be treated very well locally and that I needed to come back to Barnes in St. Louis.

Back to St. Louis we went. Once in the emergency room, they brought me back, and they had taken the bandages off to look at the stitches, and just wrapped my leg in gauze and sent me back into the emergency room waiting area. At the same time, we waited for an Orthopedic surgeon to come down and look at it. The looks I was getting in the waiting room were priceless as I sat there with blood slowly soaking through the temporary bandages while I waited for an Orthopedic Surgeon. It turns out that I had swollen up in one area, and they just needed to reapply a pressure bandage. We spent the night in St. Louis and returned in the morning to speak to Orthopedics, who checked it out and sent us home.

For the next month and a half, one of my clients and friends came every day to change out my bandages. She was a blessing!     

December 2020 Rebuilt Knee at Barnes by Dr. Cara Cipriano, an Orthopedic Oncologist, who, last I knew, was the Chief of Orthopedic Oncology at Penn Medicine. See Here.