Well, I don't think I have ever spent so much time in a doctor's office in one day, but at least there seems to be a game plan for my ankle. We saw Dr.Hahn, at the Limb preservation center today. He spent about 45 min. with us discussing my failing ankle fusion. Fun, fun. He thinks it is probably due to the 2 infections I got after my initial surgery, and then after the subsequent screw removal 9 months later. Apparently, infections can hinder healing or destroy bone, or just stay in there without any symptoms. He also said that fact that I have been taking Naprosyn, an anti inflammatory has pretty much retarded any bone growth, or healing. Great! Why didn't my orthopedic surgeon know this? I feel like I have wasted the past two years thinking I was healing, when actually, my bones were disintegrating, I went from a 50% healed fusion last Dec. to a 10% fusion this Nov. How can that happen? Where did my bone go? So very weird.
So, the game plan is for me to stop all anti-inflammatory meds, DONE, and start taking mega doses of Calcium and Vitamin D to see if that promotes any bone growth. Not real likely, but it's worth a shot before the next step which is to (most likely) go back under the knife and have him clean out the ankle of scar tissue, dead tissue, possible dead bone, and rough everything up, nice and bloody so the bone can try to grow again. Sounds so painful-don't really like pain. Then, after all that, I get to be on IV antibiotics for 6 wks. or so-don't really want that either. And, after all that, I may end up with another fusion, and a external bone fixator, which is a medieval device to hold your bones together from the outside with pins sticking into your skin squeezing everything together, but better than screws if you are prone to infection in your bone-really, really don't want to go there. I am not into torture. I am one of those people who asks the drs. questions like,"is this going to hurt?" Duh! He said,"once people have had external fixators, they don't want to ever have them again" He also added a nice comment,"but then, it's better than an amputation". He wasn't kidding. Yikes! Then, this nice doctor, sent me to Dr. Terra, an infectious disease doctor. Tim kept referring to him as the "contagious disease dr.". Dr. Terra fit us in, at the spur of the moment, and was very nice explaining what he would do with my ankle. He's the one who would make up the cocktail of IV antibiotics.
We then went back to Dr. Hahn, down the hall, who BTW had the most awesome rock wall and waterfall cascading down the entire wall-the trip was worth it just to say to Tim,"That's what I want you to make me for our 25th anniversary". I'm thinking Dr. Hahn makes a lot of money along with his associates saving people's limbs.
So, I asked Dr. Hahn, "how likely is it for my ankle to snap in two in the next 2 months? Do I have to do something about this right away or could we try the vitamins and get off the Naprosyn, and see what happens". I again told him I didn't want that external fixator thingy, and he said,"I'm getting the subtle hint that you don't want it". He said we can wait, but I have to be careful with the ankle, because you just never know when an ankle held together basically by tendons and ligaments, with some bones floating around will snap in half.
So, I'm going to do a lot of praying that God will think it's best not to have to go the surgery route and start all over again. And, I'm going to try to talk Tim into taking us to Disneyland over Spring Break, because if I do have to go the surgery route, it's going to be a very long haul. When I told Tim that I thought we should go to Disneyland, he said,"what do you think this is,"the Make a Wish Foundation?" and I replied,"yes" I think I'm pretty close to qualifying!
To put things into perspective though, I don't have cancer, I am not sick, I am not in horrible pain (yet). I can still take care of my family. I have great friends who look out for me, and even brought over a meal tonight, knowing we would be up in Denver most of the day. I am very blessed. God is still good. He is still on His throne. It won't mean that He isn't good if I do have to have surgery and even have a medieval device pinning my bones in place. I will get through whatever plans He has for me, because He is always with me and He is my strength.
I had to remind myself of that when we were driving home and Nate called to say that Abby was throwing another tantrum and then he, being so wise at 15, proceeded to tell me what I should do about her when we got home. Gotta love that!
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