Monday, February 17, 2014

Broke, but not beat

Our first few days back in Texas were spent trying to keep warm - the highs were in the mid 30's - and the motorhome was freezing as Brandon had ran through just about all the propane while we were in Florida.  The space heaters were doing their best to keep the inside temperature to about 64 degrees, and the windows were dripping from all the condensation.  And to top it all off, Tami is dealing with a broken heel - hobbling up and down the steps of our motorhome as she tries not to break the other foot....

The day after our return, we met with her orthopedic surgeon and his recommendation was to get the damage repaired, although he referred us to a podiatrist because we "need to use a doctor that deals with these kinds of breaks."   We were able to get appointments with two podiatrists over the following two days, and felt confident that our final choice would do a good job.  Although the prognosis is not great - of the people that earn their living on their feet, it normally knocks about 50% out of the workforce and on to disability.  It also usually results in arthritis in the heel-joint in about 80% of patients and most end up getting the joint fused together as a result.


Prepped and ready for surgery

So surgery was scheduled for this past Friday and everything seemed to go well, and there was even some good news about the extent of the damage.  It seems that the CT scan was read incorrectly and the top of the heal that was thought to also be broken, was not (her heal bone, unfortunately, was still split in two.)   I guess $2750 just doesn't buy the kind of quality is used to.  But I suppose the scan is what costs the money, it doesn't come with a guaranty it gets read correctly.  But the good news about the top of the bone not being broken is that it lowers her chance for developing arthritis and a resulting 2nd surgery to about 10-15%.  We see him again in 2 weeks - after that, she will be released to go back to the boat as long as she continues to do her range of motion exercises and remains non-weight-bearing for 4-6 weeks.


You can see the plate at the bottom of the incision  (and those are surgical gloves on the physician)


3 days after surgery- swelled, bruised, and ouchy.

Getting the dressing changed

5 comments:

  1. Good thing nothing was broken but too bad for having to go through the surgery anyway.

    Hope the healing goes well. Try not to go too fast too soon on it.

    Just looked through the blog. Lots of work done so far. Keep it up. It's coming together pretty good.

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  2. Dan, I had to re-write the part about the top of the heel bone not being broken - that was just the little bit of good news that came along with the surgery.. Her heel bone itself was clearly split into two pieces, and that's why the metal plate was screwed to the two parts of her heel. The CT report also thought that the top of her heel bone was broken into two parts as well (right at the joint with the above bone) - which, in the end, was not the case.

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    Replies
    1. oh, sorry to hear that. I hope the recovery goes well.

      All the best to you all.

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  3. Hey Kevin,

    Just catching up on my blog reading...sorry to hear about Tami. Wishes for a speedy recovery.
    Looks like you guys are getting a lot accomplished. Man you are making me feel slow. :-)

    -Mike
    ThisRatSailed

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  4. Thanks Mike...yeah, Tami continues to recover, but has had a major set-back and looks like it will be quite awhile until she'll be able to return to the boat and continue working. Not yet ready to post pics as she is not yet out of the woods, but as soon as she is on the road to full recovery, I'll post the quite interesting and graphic pictures.

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