Home Free

Yesterday I saw Dr. Brookmeyer and he let the nurse remove my PICC line (hooray!). You can see the line being pulled out of my arm in the picture to the left. I now begin two weeks of oral anitbiotics. I am so happy to have that thing out of me! I have the hot tub hot and will get in tonight, then off to the Y tomorrow to work out for the first time since January 29!

Midline

I have still been going into the infusion center daily to get my IV treatment of 2g of Ceftriaxone. It has been fun getting to know all the folks there. It seems like we are family now, the kind of family that mercifully takes blood out of my body and puts the antibiotic drugs in me like I'm some sort of drug addict. I now have pricks all over my arms from the IV lines (which they have been leaving in for four days at a time, then changing it to a new location).

Yesterday I saw the infectious disease doctor, Peter Brookmeyer, who wants me to continue the antibiotic therapy for a minimum of four weeks total, most likely six, and then do a few more weeks of oral antibiotics. Since the wound is so close to the bone, everyone involved feels like this is the best course of action. In fact, he said there is no sure way to know right now that the staph ISN'T in the bone, so this is the safest thing to do. I agree.

So to make things a little easier, they put in a "midline" catheter in my right arm (see picture at left). This thing has a little line that goes about ten inches up in my vien, and it which can stay in for the next two weeks. It will also make it easier for me to travel to Seattle next week for business. All I have to do is take a bunch of drugs with me and inject them daily into the midline. It's called SASH--first inject saline to clean the line, then hook up the antibiotic bag and let it empty out into my vien, then clear the line with saline again and finally inject Heparin to make sure the blood is flowing nice and easy.

As for the wound, they have decided to let it heal over, which is great because I was, admittedly, getting tired of having them force it open each day to pack it full of gauze. So let's hope that it doesn't abscess again and keep the infection going. I'll report back in a week or two, but for now, know that I am hanging in there and seemingly doing just fine!

A Dose of Good News

I saw Dr. Stephen Myers this moring, a well-respected local orthopaedic surgeon. He took x-rays and examined them and my wound. He said "my gut tells me that this is going to heal just fine." He was looking for a dark spot on the x-ray, which would have indicated staph-infected or dead bone, but there was none of that (thank God). Still, staph is hard to predict, so he wants to watch it closely. I will see him in a week.

Meanwhile, I will continue the daily IV antibiotic infusion therapy, although the ID doctor has decided to extend this to 4-6 weeks. I suppose he might ease that back a little if things look good after another week or two, but that remains to be seen.

Did I just dodge a bullet? Right now it looks, and feels, that way. So thanks, everyone, for your prayers--this good news today certainly is a sigh of relief, and something worth feeling great about!

Give Me the Drugs!

At today's "infusion" the doctor (Peter Brookmeyer) came and did a little "probing" into my wound. He was not too excited in what he was feeling. So he decided to treat it as a "deep wound," meaning that I have to have daily infusions for 4-6 weeks, as well as see an orthopaedic surgeon tomorrow morning to take a little closer look. The odds are that he will want to open it back up and do a little housecleaning, according to the infectious disease doctor. I'll report more tomorrow.

Infusion and Wound Repacking

WARNING: GRAPHIC PHOTOS

Today I went to my infectious disease doctor with my camera and shot the antibiotic infusion and the wound repacking.

Please note that the pictures of the wound are disturbing. These are all self portraits--the nurse was kind enough to work with me to get good shots!

These first two images are of my getting my daily dose of Ceftriaxone. Thank God for the cool recliners.





However, I am just biding my time because in a few minutes they will unpack the wound, and I'm not looking foward to it--I know what it feels like, and it's not fun...

Next up is the unpack. Hmmmm. It's kind of like pulling a shoelace out of a shoe. This is where I try to keep from barfing...














Finally, it's out. One more shot of the wound. I skipped the repacking. That didn't feel good at all, so I set my camera down...

But not before taking one last shot of the hole. Don't you just love the human body? BTW, that "other" little scar below the hole is from my appendectomy back in college....

Purple Visitor

I forgot to mention: when the nurse attempted to inert the IV, she somehow missed and dug the needle through the vien, which hurt like hell. I asked her to try again somewhere else, and a couple of days later, a nice blueberry shows up. Beautiful!

Invasion!

I thought I was through blogging about my back injury, but the saga continues. On January 29th I had a bone biopsy in my hip done by Dr. Paul Miller in Denver. The purpose was to attempt to learn more about why my bone density is low and zero in on what to do about it. Although it was an uncomfortable recovery, I seemed to be doing fine.

Then on Wednesday February 6th, the site of the incision became red and puffy. The next morning I went to see my primary care physician, who said I had an infection and that if it got any bigger, I was to go directly to the ER. It got bigger. So I went to the ER.

After enduring three and half hours in the waiting room, complete with the drama of a death behind the doors inside the ER and family members in complete misery, I finally was admitted and seen by the ER doctor. He was very concerned about the infection being so close to the bone, so he took xrays (which showed no abnormalities in the bone) and took blood, which showed I had a Staphylococcus Aureus infection, or Staph. These can be nasty little infections. So they jumped into action, putting me under conscious sedation and opening up my hip (again!) to drain the infection. I must say, it was a little unnerving, and the open wound stuffed with gauze was pretty sick. See above for a self portrait.

So its back on the antibiotics and pain killers, waiting to hear what kind of results the wound culture will show. More soon.

99 Percent

So it's been over ten months since the accident, and I get a lot of people asking me if I've recovered. The answer is yes, physically (although I am still trying to figure out how to increase my bone mass) and no, in just about every other way. Anyone who has been through an accident like this will probably tell you that it takes a long, long time to not only get back on your feet, but the same is true for putting back everything else. Family life, finances, work--you name it, it suffers right along with the body. I'm getting closer to being back to where I was before the accident, but I'm not there yet. Are some things better because of what happened? Well, I am not sure I have learned one big thing, like some people do. I must admit, I am kind of disappointed in that, but there it is...Oh, sorry, I have learned that running on ice isn't wise. I won't be doing that again.

Nearly Healed

Quick Update: I have seen Dr. Corenman again, taken blood tests to see if there is a "smoking gun" for the relatively low bone density in my spine, and seen a world-renowned bone specialist in Denver named Dr Miller.

First, Dr. Corenman took an x-ray and it showed the bone healing as planned. I will see him again one last time on February 20. That day will be my last in the brace (the picture here is me "cheating" by sitting down on a chair in my shower to get clean and shave!). I'll also begin physical therapy that day at the Howard Head clinic in Vail.

Second, the blood tests showed I am totally healthy and that there is NO evidence of risk factors that would contribute to low bone density.

Third, Dr. Miller said that low bone density doesn't neccessarily mean a higher risk factor for bone fractures unless you are above 50 and that age contributes far more to bone fractures than does low bone mass. He is still going to run some tests to see if there is something causing this, but he suspects it is simply genetics. He says that genetics determine 90 of your bone density; the other 10 percent from things like Celiac disease, heavy drinking, etc. So it looks like the relatively low bone density scores I have are simply what life handed me, and that it really isn't going to be of much concern until I get a lot older. At that time, there are some drugs that can treat it.

We're taking all of this as great news and I for one am excited for February 20th!

Things are looking up

Yesterday I saw a spinal specialist in Colorado Springs named Dr. Sung. Here's where things stand at this point:

1. After reviewing my x-ray with Dr. Sung and consulting on the phone with Dr. Corenman in Vail, it looks good that my spinal fracture is on track to heal without surgery. Eventually I will be able to resume nearly every activity I have done in the past, albeit with a crooked back. I will need to be smart about things like skiing, where the chances of falling and breaking something else are greater.

2. I will spend another five weeks in my brace and then begin some intensive physical therapy. I am really looking forward to this, as it will mean getting out of the brace and getting on with life. For now, I am being a good boy and doing what the doctors tell me to do. I see Dr. Corenman in Vail on January 4th to do one last x-ray and consulation before I close out this phase of recovery and look toward rehab.

3. My low bone density needs to be addressed, so I am trying to get in to see a specialist in Denver that Dr. Corenman said "I'd send Gerald Ford to him" (one of Dr. Corenman's patients), so he must be pretty good. I know that any genectic spinal degenration that has and is occuring in me will be addressed at this time.

4. At some point down the road, after I get my bone density higher, then I may elect to do some spinal surgery to correct the curve in my spine. It's far too early to think much about this kind of surgery, but it is in our minds and something we will be considering as we get further down the road of life. It would be my long-term goal to avoid becoming the Hunchback of Notre Dame and set myself up for a graceful aging and exit from life in my 100s.

So for now, I am doing fine, I'm off the pain medication, and I'm planning to resume my travel and shooting schedule in late February.

Thank you so much for all your calls, notes, prayers and help. We are grateful for our friends and family and would NOT have been able to get through this thing sanely without each and every one of you.