Thursday was a good day. No surgeries and a quiet day of rest for the most part. Laura felt strong enough to get out of bed and sit in a recliner for a little over an hour. But mostly it was just nice to have a day without surgery.
Friday she was in surgery in the morning to open up, clean out, and examine the fasciotomy. The muscles are recovering nicely and they are putting pressure on the wounds to begin pulling them together so that they will be able to be closed up. The wound on the left side (inside) of the calf is pretty much closed, and the gap on the right side (outside) wound went from 10 cm/4" wide to about 5 cm/2" wide.
As far as next week goes, there are lots of ins and outs, but right now the basic idea is two surgeries on Monday and Wednesday (where they will close up one of the two wounds at least). Then the hope is to repair the tibia next weekend (January 4,5 or 6). As our surgeon says, that's an "optimistic, but realistic" schedule. So it seems likely that we'll be flying back to Boston early- to mid-week of 1/6.
So, this weekend it's all about rest. Nothing particular for us to do except for Laura to relax as best she can. She has for a few days now been moving back and forth between the bed and a reclining chair, and can use the commode herself. (Of course, it does help to have one or two people assist her make the transition with lots of equipment still hooked up, and someone to help manipulate the leg, etc.)*
The ex-fix
One thing I didn't mention before, as it wasn't relevant to her overall status, is that Laura has an external brace on her leg that holds everything in place and immobilizes her knee so that the broken parts of the tibia aren't moving around in there. There are two pins drilled into her femur and then another two drilled into (I assume) her tibia down near the ankle. Then a few bars run between the pins to hold everything stable. It's heavy, but makes a convenient handle when we're trying to move her leg around! (And it's a lot better to move the leg using that stable "handle" than it is to move her leg directly whereby you may inadvertently be moving a bone around that's not supposed to.)
Beware the Ides (last week?) of March December!
A tip for those of you who like ski vacations: the week between Christmas and New Year's is a hectic time, and according to the Vail Health folks, it's the one week out of the whole season that they see the most injuries. That certainly seemed to be the case on Wednesday, 12/26. Laura was scheduled for surgery at 9 am, but it got pushed back to noon, then 3, and on and on until she didn't have surgery until 9:30 pm. All because of emergency procedures that popped up that day. If you do decide to ski between Christmas and New Year's, be careful up there!
* A little plug for exercise
Laura has been exercising diligently and regularly for the past two years, and it is making a big difference for her in the hospital. I know one of the things she's disappointed about is that this is going to set her back on the exercise and fitness regime, but it's been really important here in the hospital. She is much more able to move herself between bed, chair and commode, so it makes a big difference to her quality of life in the hospital room. And, it has also helped with the ability of her muscles to bounce back and recover from the compartment syndrome. So far every surgery since the original fasciotomy has been on the positive side of the orthopedic teams' expectations, and as the primary surgeon has pointed out, it makes a dramatic difference operating on a fit person versus someone who is less healthy.
So, get out there and exercise! If you ever end up with a tibial plateau fracture and compartment syndrome, it will make a huge difference to your recovery!!! (I assume there are other beneficial aspects of exercise, too....)
P.S. I heard that some people had tried to comment on the previous blog post and it didn't work. I'm not sure why that was, but I think it's working now. Sorry about that.
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