I updated this post to take down the photos of the leg. Carson isn't quite ready to share these photos yet. (also note, for those subscribed to both the caring bridge site and now this site, you might get two emails for a bit 🙂
Expectations sure can set you up. Monday and Tuesday were pretty good, even “easy days” for Carson. Pain was greatly reduced, thus the transfer to Rehab. Wednesday was an evaluation day and pretty straight forward, getting into a bigger room, more light and a TV that is younger than Carson so his Xbox would connect.
So…we thought this was the new normal. Silly us.
Thursday and Friday (today) have been harder. Rehab has kicked in the nerve pain, so he’s had to take more meds that make him feel terrible, but at least help him tolerate the pain. They plan on Carson being in rehab until the 16th. More on gameplan below.
The staff in Rehab has been amazing. The PT and OT teams are loving, compassionate and push him at the same time. The doctors are all enthusiastic and hopeful and the nurses are top notch. We had gotten used to the trauma ward. It disturbingly, felt like home because we knew everyone and knew how to navigate challenging moments. I was afraid for Carson coming to Rehab, because of the unknowns. It’s a great place for him. It was the right move at the right time.
Getting to Rehab Tuesday night was hilarious. The “transport team” who wheels people around the hospital from place to place just kept not showing up. So, his super amazing and cute nurse Diana and her cute partner Violet decided they would do it themselves. Diana and Violet, for Carson were way better than “Joe the transport guy.” Though Diana and Violet decided afterward they should stick with their day jobs. The bed was too big for the first elevator, too big for the hallway and corner for the first room Carson was in for the night. They got stuck, turned around, and for the most part everyone was laughing about it, including Carson. Picture of bed stuck in first elevator.
CAUTION ON OTHER PICTURES-Carson got his bandages off today. I share these pictures, while recommend viewing them with caution. I haven’t uploaded the worst ones. His wound is pretty awful and will likely require a couple more surgeries to clean up, eventually. I counted the number of incisions/wounds. One leg alone it is 9 different locations he needed to be operated on and closed up...so far. That doesn't include the massive graft (bigger than I expected) they harvested from his right leg.
Carson goes back into the OR on Wednesday of next week (the 9th) for procedure lucky 13 to have the Ex-Fix removed and another immobilization device placed around his knee. He will then go in for an MRI Thursday.
Pending the results of the MRI, Carson will have his first knee surgery most likely the week of the 21st so there is a full 6 weeks from sciatic nerve repair. This may also allow the Ortho team to manipulate the knee during surgery (Tons of scare tissue to break up) since it will have been a full 7 weeks follow the IT band repair and Patellar Tendon repair from the first surgery.
This week has been productive in advancing Washington University (no conclusion yet), finding a local neuromuscular expert, physiatrist for long term guidance and pursuing longer term rehab, home modifications, dog visit to the hospital (tomorrow) etc.
Ohh...and he said he wants to buzz his hair. It's full on bee gees hair now.
We are launching the www.Huddystrong.com website now. You can go there and signup to receive auto emails sent to you when we post updates. I'll continue writing here for now, but Barrie will copy them all over to the website site. Over the next week or so we will stop posting here and move to Huddystrong.com exclusively.
We’ll still make changes to the website over the next week or so, enabling comments and other stuff. A special thanks to our friend Jash Tracey who worked with Barrie to build out the site. This was his evening and weekend work and as you’ll notice at the bottom, built for Carson, with love.
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