I wish everything we write about Carson's experience through this challenging time could be inspirational. I suppose it's true that some things are just hard and sometimes we cannot see, maybe ever, the reason behind them.

We started the day off with giggles and smiles and a lot of affection.  We didn’t get much sleep last night, but not because of pain, just because of the schedule of blood, pills, IV, more blood, vitals, more pills, etc.  So, we got about 3 hours interrupted sleep between 11:30pm and 3:45am and were up from there.  While tired, Carson’s eyes were bright, he laughed with two of his best friends who showed up at 8am and by a little after 9 we were off to pre-op.

We think surgery was successful, but it took a toll over 4 hours.  Wednesday Carson had 5cm taken out of his femur.  That wasn’t quite enough to close the gap on the cleaned-up nerve without tension, so they had to reposition and bend Carson’s knee today to create a little more length in the nerve to take the tension off. 

Unfortunately, I’ve never seen anyone in that much pain, ever.  He had to be repositioned a number of times for various reasons and this afternoon was by far, hands down the most pain Carson has ever experienced. 

Poor guy couldn’t get a nerve block because the nerve block medicine is contraindicative with blood thinners which Carson is on due to the stent in his leg.  So, he ended up having shooting nerve pain., femur pain, knee pain, etc.  Really, really hoping tomorrow is a better day for him.   

Most of the soft tissue was stitched and closed today, but he still has a large section that will need a graft.  We’ll follow up with Desai early next week and schedule the graft for about two weeks out. 

So, unless they need to reposition his knee again (which is possible given the discomfort), he’ll be off from surgery for a couple weeks. 

NEXT STEPS:

1.     Decision about Acute Rehab-Carson can’t really do any rehab, but he may go to a facility that teaches him to begin to use the body he has now.  If that’s the direction he chooses, that will start as soon as he is a bit more mobile.  Likely start looking at that toward the end of next week.

2.     Sports Ortho-Doctors have said they are really concerned about the extent of knee damage.  We’ll start meeting with surgeons in two weeks or so/once Carson can ride in a car (might need to buy a minivan).