Journey went away to camp and while there two days in they were on a bit of a hike. They had to cross a creek and there were two ways of doing it...walk across a slippery log or jump it. Journey thought she would fall off the log and break her leg so she thought jumping the creek was a better option. It might have been had she made it across. Instead what happened is she slammed into the side of the creek snapping her tibia and fibula. The camp was three hours away outside a small town and because it was determined she needed surgery she was transported back home.
There was nothing really remarkable about the surgery or immediate recovery. We learned she had small bones however and they had to use one of the smallest tibial nails they had to stabilize the bone. We carry on adapting to our new lifestyle and although the bones are slow to heal they are making progress.
October comes along and all of a sudden there is an increase in pain and swelling in the leg. Everyone immediately thinks blood clot and she is given the full work up to find...no clot. Diagnosis becomes lymphoma which requires special wraps twice a week etc etc. We adjust.
Bones continue to be slow to heal and Journey is having some discomfort with the feeling of the screws in the nail so a decision is made two months ago to remove the two at the bottom in hopes of hastening the healing. We had the option of doing the surgery before Disneyland but decided not to tempt fate and wait until after. I am psychic...make no mistake about it!
Last week...a week before surgery Journey starts to experience extreme pain in the leg, there's swelling and she says it feels like it's burning. We go to the ortho who gives her the full work up believing that she has an infection though systemically she really does not present that way. X-rays and blood work all come back fine. No new injury, no markers for infection. The ultrasound however shows a pocket of fluid over the fracture site. The decision is that when the ortho was in getting out the screws he would aspirate the fluid and see what he had. What he had was pus. Nice. He left the screws in and initiated the process we are in now. She's had a cat scan which showed not only the poorly healing bone but the fluid running through it and into the soft tissue. So lots of conversation has gone on between the surgeons with differing opinions on course of action and a consult has been requested from an adult ortho who has lots of experience working with trauma and infection from his time in Afghanistan.
That was Friday the 11th. Journey was admitted into the hospital though without the consult they were not going to do anything over the weekend so she came home on pass to go back in Sunday night so as not to miss the adult guy should he come in early. He didn't come in at all Monday. Turns out he had an extremely busy day that went into later at night so we wait until tomorrow in hopes that he will make it in and help in the decision making. The only new piece of information from today is that the 'pus' grew nothing. We were told however that fifty percent of the time that will happen. I believe this is more common in a chronic infection which obviously this had had to be as she has had plenty of blood work etc since the initial fracture and nothing has shown up indicating infection.
All I really know is that this is a BIG DEAL. With everything there is a worst case scenario and that has been explained to me but hopefully the options they have available to them will be successful and we won't have to worry about worse case scenario.
Oh and one of the best parts of this ordeal though it has not so much bearing on Journey's emotional well being but mine....when she broke her leg five months after Ailish died we were on the same unit a few doors down from THE ROOM. Because it is the orthopaedic unit we once again are on the same unit.
Good times.
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| August '11 feeling well enough to try and escape |
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| Post op August '11 |
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| Happy happy discharge day August "11 |
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