Good evening and welcome to this account of my unexpected journey, and no I'm not talking about hobbits. A quick recap - I fell and fractured my fibula and tibia and after several days working in the yard they snapped. After a visit to our local clinic I found out that they were broken.
The P.A. at our clinic got us set up for me to see an orthopedic surgeon. So, the next day we drove down about an hour and half to consult with the surgeon and after several x-rays she agree with the P.A., sure enough I had a broken fibula and tibia but it shouldn't be to hard to fix. A plate attached to the broken end held in place by screws and I should be good to go. In my case famous last words.
My wife and I went down to Dumas and took a room the night before the surgery, that way if it was early we wouldn't have to leave about 4:00 in the morning. It turned out we had an afternoon time slot and the Doc. got held up in surgery. so it was about 3:00 when I went back. I am 63 and I have never had surgery other than to have teeth cut out so I had no idea what to expect. Sure enough I got back there and had to get into one of those famous or infamous hospital gowns. Luckily they actually had one that fit, and I was grateful for that because it was all I had on. Soon the nurses were putting patches to attach monitors to me and then there were a boatload of questions and papers to sign.
After all this it was the anesthesiologist's turn. He came in and explained that they could do one of three things. They could knock me out all the way, they could give me a spinal block, or the could give me nerve blocks in my leg. I opted for just the leg block, but because of a low respiration rate I got a spinal block also and it hurt just like everyone said it did. They did an ultrasound of my leg to make sure they deadened the right nerves and then it was off to surgery.
I was awake for part of it, but I have what my wife calls a sleeping super power. I can fall asleep just about anywhere if I'm laying or sitting still so I dosed off and on during the surgery. When I finally came out of surgery boy was I surprised. I didn't have plates and screws in my leg, but a rod through my heel a couple of pins in my foot and a couple of screws coming out of my leg just above my ankle.
They told me had something call Charcot Foot and a possible infection in my foot so plans had changed. Charcot Foot is damage to your foot when you’ve lost feeling in your feet and ankles. It can make injuries or infections much more serious. This led to a hospital stay of just over a week and 6 days of an antibiotic drip changed out at 4 a.m., this was followed up by my blood being drawn around 4:30 every morning and all the other stuff the nurses and nurses aids had to do through out the day and night.
But as uncomfortable as it could have been it wasn't so bad. My wife and I were constantly thanking the Lord for the staff of the hospital, they were awesome. You'd thought I was the only patient on the floor. And all the jokes about hospital food proved unfounded. We ate great food, maybe not enough of it, but good food. The guys that brought us our meals were great an even got us set up to get a meal for my wife. The Lord truly blessed my time in surgery and our time in the hospital. Plus because of the Charcot there was no pain in my foot, and just pain every once in a while in my leg.
I praise God who truly is the author of all things. And while I had no idea what would happen next I had all the faith in the world that God had already seen what would happen and He was in total control.
Next time finally at home and all kinds of changes. Until then the Lord bless and keep you and I pray you find some encouragement in this.
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