Looks like we have the "go ahead" from Metro, so Mike can now get back into the rehab routine. The dressing change went well and there did not seem to be any major surprises. The wounds are healing well, thanks to Mike's ability to keep up with the protein supplements and to GiGi for some great nutritional meals. The dressings will be the Domboro's again for it's debridement effect covered by a dry dressing. Again, the biggest challenge will be to keep that dressing in place.

This next week will be quite familiar -- he will need to get back to where he was before the most recent grafting. After he rebounds, the forward progress should move at a rapid pace.

Mike's teeth cleaning appointments have been scheduled -- he needs two one hour appointments--I think they're planning to blast the tartar away!! We're waiting to hear from the Out Patient PT staff at Metro to schedule some visits over the next 2 months.
Mike's beginning to see a light at the end of the tunnel...he's talking a lot about how he will transition all of this care to home and of course, the sooner the better.

By the way, the crutch walking will be resume again soon---how about it Bonnie H? Are you ready?

Til next time---Marsha

This is Jenny typing (in "WORD") after Uncle Mike's unsuccessful attempt to post a message left him really pissed. Apparently, he spent too long composing the entry, so when he went to post, it replied with the "timed out error". Tyler and I arrived at 10:30 a.m. to find Mike and Ruthie playing cribbage.

Uncle Mike's mobility has been restricted since the touch-up surgery last Monday. The dry, bulky dressing wants to slip down (exposing the new groin graft) every time there is a hint of movement. He's not allowed to scoot on the slightly damaged left hip graft, and his right leg has a raw donor sight that hurts like hell every time he touches, moves, flexes, bumps, brushes or looks at it. Even when he ignores it, he gets pain spikes that attack his entire body. As a result, he finds a comfortable position in the recliner or bed and stays there. Consequently, his physical conditioning and his stump mobility are regressing. The steps backward have him feeling a little disheartened.

This is Mike back again; Jenny had to take Tyler to his baseball game... The last time I had to deal with a raw donor site, I was comfortably numbed with generous dosages of oxycontin and morphine (Oh well).

Hopefully, this Monday's graft evaluation will yield good news and the donor site will have progressed beyond its most painful stage and allow the rehab program to resume in earnest.

Mike

Mike had his visit to see Dr. McDonald and Tammy. the dressing change took place on the shower table, so Mike said the cleansing felt pretty good. The painful part was the donor site....it is healing so all is well there. The graft sites (there must be 10 touch ups) look good as well. The graft on the hip that we were concerned about did shift a little, but it looks like what is left may be able to fill in on its own. That sounded pretty good. I must brag a little because Tammy asked if I brought my custom made elastic wrap for the top layer of the dressing. Of course, I did, so the dressing went very quick. Now Mike's activity level can increase a little more. That will get him back to his pre-surgery rehab status. Monday is another follow-up visit for the grafts and if all goes well, full rehab is a go. That's the news we've been waiting for. When rehab gets into full swing, that will keep Mike very busy and he will be tired....can you believe he can hardly wait!!! To follow up the events of last evening---all is well!!

Warning: If reading about bodily functions is upsetting, you may want to skip this entry.

Well, we women have been dealing with post partum constipation for years. Now, MIke can say he has had experienced a "near birth"...

When the caution on the med says "may cause constipation"--believe it! When Mike told me he felt a little bloated..I told him he needed to "poop". Well, that was an understatement. After the "goldfinger" exploration, I called Phyllis to assist with a project I knew would require more than just me. We approached this problem with all of it's possible consequences just like engineers....when all was said, the only choice was suppository and than wait..Phyllis said she was prepared to "catch it" because we could tell that this was big...Mike as he was reaching a pain level of at least 8, said..you mean "catch shit" and of course the laughter began...I dare say digging out an impaction has never been so humorous to our recollection. Mike was wanting a cork screw--he thought that would help--funny boy! He, with some "goldfinger" assistance, birthed those rocks and ended up being grateful to Phyllis and I for putting him through that. We did remind him that if this happened in the hosptial, the experience would NOT have been so much fun! From experience, that condition does NOT get better with time. What we do know is that if Mike ever goes back into the hospital, we will bring in the stool softeners so he doesn't miss even one dose.

Following the "poop" ordeal, we proceeded to check and change dressings so Mike will look his best for his trip for the initial graft check today...this is where we hope and pray the sites are all healthy and the grafts "take". The minute we have all grafts healing and in place, Mike can get to rehab--full speed ahead (Mikey speed, of course). I'll let you know how the wounds look when we get back!

When I visited Mike at noon, he was concerned about the fact that his graft on his hip might have moved. I found his friend Tammy, who is the wound expert and she affirmed that the graft slipped, probably when he was moved from the operating room to his bed yesterday. The good news is that Tammie was able to realign the skin, rebandage and instruct Mike not to bend sharply or scoot... During that quality time with Tammie, he wanted to know why he couldn't leave the hospital. The barrier was the ride home and the fact that Dr. McDonald wanted him to stay in the hospital until Thursday.. Well. Tammie can be as persuasive as Mike and with a little arnm twisting, she relented.
I learned at 3:00pm today that Dr. McDonald wrote the discharge orders. Again the restriction was not to flex his left hip over 45 degrees. That meant a bed transport. I tried to arrange a transport with the Valley View Fire Department, and although they wanted to help, their page for a transport at 7:00pm didn't result in any takers. So-o-o, Mike and I started to plan how he could escape and "do no harm". Here's how it went:
The staff found a cart that took him from his bed to my car. The seat was reclined so he got in the car ever so carefully and rode home reclined. Then we got back to Valley View with not much of plan to get him up the stairs...he couldn't sit on the chair and ride, but he decided that he could use the rail and the elevator chair for support and hop up each step...Becky operated the button to move the chair and I followed Mike to support any loss of balance - sound familiar, Bonnie? This time however, the trip was uneventful,,,he made it to his bed by walker and found it much more comfortable already. The most discomfort he is having is related to the donor site--much as before. But, he is medicated (just a little) and all tucked in for the night. He is still listening to his ipod that Ruthie hand delivered last night--quite a surprise and he really is enjoying it. I just hooked it up to a computer speaker and he can now listen without those little buds in his ears.
Next on the agenda is the return to Metro on Thursday at 3:00pm for a dressing change and the word on how well the grafts are doing.
Till then.... Marsha

Mike called me from Metro a little while ago, to tell me he's on the "Women's Specialty" ward. Apparently this is where they placed him because of the sleep apnea issue. He seemed quite happy to be there, too (well, women have always kinda been his speciality....).


He said he loved being home with Bonnie and played his stereo "all night long." He was kind of disappointed because I had planned to bring some visitors to see him in Valley View this Thursday, so that will have to be postponed. He said he might even drive down to Medina to visit, now that he's "on the loose." I sweetened the deal by telling him I have a "Trust Snape" bumper sticker for his car. (like offering candy to a sugar addict....)


They brought him a tray of "real" food (after nothing but a liquid diet since last night) and we hung up so he could eat. He sounded great....his trip home was invigorating and motivating and he's raring to go (and still driving just a little faster than the rest of the world...).

Today the grafted areas of skin that did not "take" were grafted again. The Dr. was very pleased with the healing that has taken place thus far....she actually harvested more donor skin than needed so she was able to replace some of it so Mike's pain at the donor site would be minimized. As I left Metro, I had just finished a visit in the recovery room (not usually allowed, but they let me see him for a few minutes) and they had no room assignment as yet. Mike apparently was sleeping soundly and as he was snoring the nurse noticed that he has some sleep apnea going on, so she notified the Dr. and now he is waiting for a bed with "pulse ox" capabilities to open. The sleep apnea will more than likely resolve as his weight adjusts. Mike wanted to rest, so I left to wait for his phone call to tell me where he is and what he might need. We thought Mike's stay in the hospital would be "overnight", but Dr. McDonald wants to protect the graft for at least 48 hours, so he will be in until Thursday or Friday--bummer. Again, it's great his surgeon is so fussy and so extremely cautious. She didn't think he could make it home while maintaining a 45 degree flexion angle--he sits in his w/c at 90 degrees, so I think she is prudent keeping him in the hospital. So, the surgery went well and Mike will enter the home stretch of his recovery..we don't anticipate any other interruptions. His rehab for flexibility and strength will resume when the graft sites are deemed a "take".

Many of you called/emailed over the weekend to let me know that this site had apparently disappeared. Well, it had! The server hosting this site decided it didn't want to talk to anyone any more. So, while it was continuing to hum merrily along in a room locked up for the weekend, the rest of us couldn't get to it.

I'll encourage Dad to post about his weekend foray -- It sounds like he made it there and back without too much trouble.

(larger image)

Mike and I had been looking forward to Saturday for a little while, now. I have to say the trip there wnet better than I expected. Mike drove 3/4 of the way withlittle trouble. His stump had to do some creative "thumping" to keep from falling asleep, but that didn't slow us down. When we drove up to Mike's house, Bonnie was outside waiting--when she saw the car, she began jumping and clapping and of course--smiling ear to ear--. That alone made it all worth while. Then there was Mike's excitement as he rolled his wheelchair from room to room and found absolutley no problems navigating. He was very pleased that any accommodation needing to be done is pretty much confined to the bathroom. Probably a few hour project for Judd and possibly Jim. Mike wondered if golf at one of the local greens would lure them to town--I'd say, no problem!

So by Sunday, Mike had all the measurements needed to allow him to buy the right fixtures to replace the toilet chair and possibly the shower seat. Mike mentioned that he wanted to have Judd put up a rope in his garage that he could use to get back up should he ever find himself on the ground again....that should be some interesting engineering. I think that came from a "lesson learned" with Bonnie H the other day!

Bonnie had a nice lunch and when I finished the dressing change, around 4pm, I headed back to Cleveland and trusted that Mike would do OK making the trip back on Sunday. Indeed he did just fine! However, a trip that took me 4 hours, took Mike 3 hours and 15 minutes (curious). Anyhow, it is so rewarding to see Mike move so swiftly to an independent state--his mind is already there, his body just has to catch up..

If Mike falls and I'm the only one around to see it, does it count and do I have to blog about it?? Yes, I think I do because we have to be honest here. ha!!

I came over to visit Mike after lunch and we sat around for a while waiting to see if the dentist would call to squeeze him in. Mike had a couple phone calls, one from a former co-worker (Ashraf Suri) who actually hadn't yet heard about his stupid-dent (Mike is sitting here next to me as I type this and this is what he calls it). The other call was from his boss Rodney, where it sounded like Michael came up with a sexy AND elegant solution to a problem at work.

So then we decided it's a gorgeous day outside so let's go out so Mike can walk around on his crutches. It wasn't too bad maneuvering the wheelchair down the stairs since Mike has a system and told me what to do. Then my job was to follow Michael with the wheelchair while he walked, practicing using his crutches (thank you, again, Connie!). Mike walked down the driveway, resting once or twice in a 200-300 ft distance. Then he veered off onto the grass thinking he wanted to get some off road practice (well, this is Michael after all).

He was doing great, heading towards some shade (i.e., BIG tree), when he sort of twisted his crutches in order to turn around. And that's when he sort of lost his balance and pitched forward. And down he went!! (TIMBERRRRR!!) (my titles are always relevant). It was actually a very good fall. Michael's emergency brain turned on, his parachute training kicked in, and he had a nice soft landing.

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