Still not feeling like "one of you."

I still feel like an adopted feral man-child dressing up in clothes and pretending to be a human being, but last night, for the first time in eight months, I wore jeans. Up until now I would have guessed that only a dead person would ever go eight months in Connecticut without wearing jeans. They felt like potato sacks compared to the pajamas and shorts I've been wearing since August. Really, they're over-rated. Americans and their jeans feel so lucky. If there was ever a country that just wore pajamas all day, I'd move in a heartbeat. But wait, that's the middle east, ain't it. Forget it. Jeans are fine.

Still no pain meds since five days ago. At first it was simply to foster regularity since those narcotics do keep the turtle heads from peeking, if you know what I'm saying (and you'd be unfortunate in this regard). But now I'm just staying off them because I really don't need them unless I'm, you know, moving around or basically trying to do anything but just lie there.

I'll try to post a pic for the graphically curious, but for now, the leg is like one big yellow, green, brown, and purple bruise on its left side where the metal plate was installed, and covered with some pretty ugly stitching. Dr. Browner may have gotten an A in shop class, but failed Home Ec. The scars are like 1/4"-wide hot dog buns and will almost surely be with me for life. The first operations were stapled so the skin could lie flat, but this new guy is an old-school stitcher who probably got his start re-assembling his buddies on the battlefield using twig flints and a bowie knife, with his tent-mate's hooch used for anaesthetic.

Today I've promised my boss I'm able to start working from home, which is plausible since this very post is proof positive I've built up a stable immunity to not only pain, but computers. In the case of my job these two things are not so different.

In case you missed it, he's home

I think we've pretty much told everyone on email or whatever, but if you are coming to the blog from umop.com or something, yeah, he's really home. Kinda miserable right now, but at least in better shape than homecoming last time 'round. And hey, he's gone almost 2 whole days with no pain meds!

It's like Christmas

Dave called me just now to tell me they took off the cast and the crazy rubber bandage this morning. So it's two days later and he's got nothing on him but scars. Not even a splint cast. So sorry guys, no digi photos of the cast.

They're hoping he will get out today, but we'll see how the pain levels go. When we know for sure, I'll post.

Day Two

So Dave's day started out with the nurses trying to wean him off IV pain meds and put him on pill pain meds. This didn't go over well, since the pills take a while to kick in. On top of that, the PT thought it's a great time to go practise on stairs, so with an already high level of pain Dave was trying to get out of bed. Finally, they gave up on that and will try again tomorrow, and he's back on the IV, although he's at least not pressing the "magic button" every 6 minutes (which is the maximum frequency).

The doctor came by and said basically the same thing as the doctor yesterday. Everything went as planned. There is a four-inch incision near the knee in which they slid a metal plate. Dave's hip is going to hurt for around 2 months, with the pain level decreasing over time in a scalar fashion (as opposed to an exponential fashion, for the non-math-inclined). He has an appointment to go into the office a week from tomorrow, which bodes well for being out of the hospital. ;) Then the current cast will come off and be replaced by ??? I believe they are doing a velcro splint cast. But maybe they'll put on another cast. Or a dolphin.

Dave's requested no visitors tomorrow, he got to see a lot of friendly faces today which was great, but he anticipates having a rough day as he attempts to go off the IV again. So just keep him in your thoughts.

Hospital Stay Round 2 Commences

So the surgery went well. Dave went in at around 12:30 (the ortho doctor was held up by his previous surgery) and got out around 2:45 or so. As planned, they took bone from the hip (he has a bandage on the hip area) and put it in the leg, removed the fixator, and put on a normal cast (comes up to below the knee).

When I stopped by to visit him post-op and bring his stuff, he was pretty queasy from the anaesthesia and taking pain meds. He put his Sennhauser headphones on and is going to sleep. So no calls or visits tonight please.

The general consensus on the floor is that he will be in there for "2 to 3 days". So far, this is an overall more positive experience. First, it looks like he'll be in there for less time. Second, he can apparently order food when he needs it (although the chicken soup he ordered at 4:30 seemed less appealing after all). And he has a single room, and the nursing staff seems pretty nice.

He's in John Dempsey (UCONN) Hospital, room 7038. But don't call tonight. Visiting hours (for future reference) are 11-8. But you should probably check first, since I'm not sure how he'll be doing tomorrow. And if he's not up for visitors tomorrow, or you've visited him and need something to do, you can always go see CO2 and Adema at the Webster.

The Day Approaches

So Monday (in two days), Dave is going to go under the knife. Watch this space for info on how things went, where to visit, and so on.

He's got to be at the hospital at 9:30. Then the operation itself is scheduled to start at 11 and end at 2. After that, he'll be in the recovery room for an hour to an hour and a half. So we should have an update sometime after 4 maybe.

In 19 days, no more metal crap!

Hi there, Dave here with a bit of significant leg news to report (finally)...

I went for a visit with my new orthopaedist, Dr. Browner (after 2 hours in the waiting room!!). Sometime on Monday, April 11th, I have an appointment at UCONN Hospital, right here in Farmington, to remove this thing, this external fixator, this (as my Mother eloquently put it) "oil rig," this (aw heck, what's one last colloqiual among friends and family?) STAINLESS STEEL RENDERING OF SATAN'S LOWER INTESTINE.

It will be replaced with a permanent metal plate, after a bone graft is extracted from my pelvis and applied to an area currently being taken up by a toe-sized dead bone fragment. Now, the doc's initial instinct was to try and leave the fixator in place during the procedure (and thereafter for another few months!), since it has done a remarkable job re-aligning the bone. Or, as the doc put it when he saw my x-ray, "when I look at this bone alignment, it's like POW!" I had to grudgingly agree that it's caused me no pain, and there's never been any infection. But all things being equal, after seven months, I'd still prefer it was melted down in the volcanic furnace of Mount Doom. But then he took another look and decided he wasn't happy having to operate between pin sites so close together, so it's outta there.

As for the bone extraction, forgive me for sounding mad, but the whole thing sounds darned cool. What happens is, they'll burrow deep inside of the biggest part of the pelvis with a drill, and with a little ice cream scoop take out some of the spongey stuff on the inside. That stuff's gonna grow all back within weeks. And with the help of some kind of protein paste, it'll turn into leg bone. I'm likely to have more pain/suffering in my waist than in my leg, but it shouldn't be more than a week or two.

And hey, I'm already one step (sorry) closer to normalness. As of right now, the issue of rust is no longer a real concern since the long-term condition of the fixator is hereby moot. This means...I can take a SHOWER like a normal human! Hooray! No more sticking my head under the bathtub faucet while Satan's intestine dangles over the edge.

As for the rest of my current state of normalness, I have actually enjoyed a not-terribly-unpleasant lifestyle these past few months, walking with a cane (and even without it around the house!), driving my new car (with only moderate discomfort after distances greater than a few miiles), going out, playing in a band, etc. I'm not exactly hacky-sacking, but I'm not in pain, either. This is the only real annoying part for me...going from a relatively active life back into the hospital bed. But I'm confident that it'll all be over soon, and will end well too!

So that's it. Monday the 11th I begin the new leg (sorry) of my adventure. I'll be in the hospital for however many days I need to, or however many days I can mentally stand...whichever is less.

The procedure's date will undoubtedly come as rotten news for my CO2 bandmates, since there is a gig planned for the *very next day* (Tuesday the 12th), opening for a major recording act (called "Adema"...they're pretty good) at the Webster Underground in Hartford. Hopefully they can make do without me as they have so many times already during this extended recovery. In my defense, I asked after a later date, but it would have been well into May.

--Dave