Broken Leg

Mary and I came up to the Twin Cities to help our daughter with her kids. That was last Wednesday afternoon, April 20.

We walked in, I took both big bags, one in each arm, and headed down the basement stairs.

I missed the last step. Like it wasn’t there.

I fell down the stairs onto the concrete basement floor, and landed on my hip (the one they replaced last year).

It shattered my femur (upper leg bone) right around where the implant was.

The bone in the X-ray looked like a compound fracture except the bones were still inside the skin.

Yes this hurt like hell. Screaming and almost passing out

It took four firemen to get me out of the basement.

I was admitted to CentraCare Hospital in Monticello, MN on Wednesday night.

They kept me drugged on Ketamine and Dilaudid and Oxy til Friday. They couldn’t do the surgery til they ordered special “just in case” parts. I couldn’t move my leg even an inch.

I had surgery on Friday afternoon, April 22. One twelve inch plate and 17 screws, and some wire. They had to use traction to pull the two pieces back into place. But they said that they were able to get it to “click back into place like a jigsaw puzzle.”

They were able to save the hip implant, which they weren’t sure of til they went in.

The Physician’s Assistant who sewed me up after the two and a half hour surgery said in his six years he’d never seen an incision so long… top of knee to top of hip,

I’m still, a week after surgery, in immense pain. I’m loaded up on oxy, which is wreaking havoc on my urinary and bowel system. I also had an issue with some internal bleeding a couple days out and needed blood.

I’m trying to cut back on the oxy, but I’ve done that a bit too fast a couple times and that ain’t fun.

Anyway…

I’m scheduled to be here at least til next Friday or Saturday.

I’m on 4 times a day physical and occupational therapy. I’m up to transferring myself out of bed and into a chair by myself. I try to dose up on the oxy before the first session. Deep breathing and a lot of loud groaning and I’m fighting to gain my mobility back one small step at a time.

I’m on no load bearing, “one foot” hopping/walking with a walker for another 5 weeks. Probably will be on the walker for weeks after that.

Ok that’s all I got. No visitors please (except I agreed to my dad). I’m just a mess.