Surgery is Done!

The big news for the week is that Johnny had surgery to fix his right shin (fibula) on Wednesday.


Tuesday he had all his pre-op tests.  That took the better part of the day.  On the way back to Austin from Temple on Tuesday evening IH35 was closed.  We saw a big plume of smoke up ahead.  Luckily the rest area exit was just north of the problem and the Highway Patrol directed traffic off, through the rest area and back on the interstate south of the problem.  As we went by we learned the problem was a motorhome fully engulfed in flames on the northbound side of the interstate.  It looked like everyone got out safely, but the MH was a goner.  That was pretty scary and got us thinking we need to research those fire extinguishers that go under the refrigerator...


Back to the surgery...


Johnny had to be up at Scott and White hospital in Temple at 7:30am, so I was up at 4am to gather up things and make sure we were to the hospital on time.  They were supposed to start the actual surgery around 9:30 and they expected the procedure to take about 2 to 2 1/2 hours.  Well, the surgery before his took a bit longer than planned so they didn't get started until about 10:30.  The staff at Scott and White did a good job of keeping me posted with news that all was going well, it was just taking longer than planned.  Finally at 3:30 I got a call from the surgeon saying that all had gone great.  Some of the screws holding the old pin in his leg had broken and others had bone grown over the top, so it took longer to get the old rod out of his leg.  But once that was done, they were able to straighten the broken bone and get it all lined up with a new, longer rod put in his leg.  


After recovery and a brief stint in post op they sent him home with me about 7:30 on Wednesday night.  Amazing!  We went from a recommendation that the best thing to do was to amputate his leg in January to an out-patient surgery this week!  He has a splint on his lower leg and the doctor doesn't want him to put any weight on his foot until his after his post op appointment on April 5th.  That's because he had to put an incision the bottom of his heel to take the old rod out and he wants that to heal up well and make sure it doesn't get infected.  Assuming it's healing well on April 5th he should be able to walk on his leg after that!


The resident (we're pretty sure the nursing staff calls him "McDreamy") who assisted with Johnny's surgery came by to check on him before they sent him home and gave us print outs of the before and after x-rays.  We could see his leg was straightened out even through the splint and dressings.  But with the x-rays we can really see that the surgery was successful!


Johnny's doing pretty good.  His leg hurts, but what can you expect after they went rooting around in the bone the other day!  The only glitch was with the nerve block they gave him after surgery.  It was supposed to block the pain in his lower leg for the first 24 hours.  Unfortunately, it seems the anesthesiologist hit the wrong nerve and numbed his thigh and butt (and a few other parts) instead of the lower leg!  So it took a little while for the pain meds to catch up to the pain level.  But he's doing better now and just started backing down the pain meds some.  Will see how that goes.


Thanks to everyone for all your prayers and well wishes.  


Now if we can just get the repairs to the 5th wheel finished we should be good to go!