Say No to Ice Skating and Break Dancing!!

My husband Mike fell on the ice a week ago Saturday, January 5.   It snowed on Christmas Day and on the day after, more snow fell so that in all we got about ten inches.  For several days after that, the snow melted some in the daytime, but at night the temperature would fall below freezing and the next day there would still be snow.  After nearly a week the snow finally melted enough to start sliding off the roof, huge chunks of it that made it look like it had recently snowed the way it piled up beside the house.  On the day that Mike got hurt Gary, the man who comes to work here when something calls for an extra set of hands or some special knowledge, came to help us repair the damage to the gutters that the heavy snow had caused pulling them down and breaking some of them.  Gary was the one who came inside to tell me that Mike had fallen and that he might have broken his leg.  Things have gone double time around here for me ever since.

Mike was sitting up right on the front cement walkway with his leg across the pile of frozen snow.  I brought him his knee brace and crutches that he asked for trying his best to get up, but none of it worked so I came inside and dialed 911.  I tried calling his doctor in Malvern and his surgeon in Little Rock and even the emergency room at the hospital, but none of them had any suggestions for me.  The emergency crew who came to help Mike from off the front sidewalk first slid a plastic stretcher underneath him, then slid the stretcher onto a gurney, all of it heavy duty work because the ground outside was uneven and slanted and there was little room to do much of anything in the tiny space of the cement walkway between the garage and the hedges.  Once inside, the ambulance driver told me she was going to take him to St. Joseph/Baptist Hospital in Hot Springs.  I had never been there before, but I followed the ambulance all the way there.  The trauma crew checked Mike in, put him onto a bed and he waited for the Doctor to come and order xrays and something for his pain.  It was a couple of hours before the doctor came and when he did, he turned out to be a very young resident who had no experience at all in orthopedics.  He ordered and looked at the X-rays of Mike's knee and upper calf then in another couple of hours came back to the room to ask Mike if he felt better and could walk.  He said he didn't see any kind of break on the pictures of Mike's knee and said Mike should go home and keep the knee propped up and take pain killers and that the knee would most likely be better the next day.  It was tough getting Mike back home again.  The hospital gave him some kind of delauden to kill the pain for the twenty mile trip and it took a lot of time for him to go inside, slowly sliding out of the car then hobbling on a walker and crutches into the garage, across the six feet, up the high step into the house.  Sonny was here to help and he and I brought Mike's wheeled office chair from the computer room and pushed him across the expanse of the livingroom but Mike had to negotiate the three steps up into the bedroom hall all by himself, one tiny movement at a time.  From there it was still not easy going down the hall and across the bedroom and it was not any small task getting up onto the bed without moving the knee but Mike told Sonny and I what to do and we managed.

It was a long wait until Monday,  The trauma Doctor had said to call and speak to an orthopedist, so on  early as possible Mike called to see when he would be able to get in and see Doctor Nicholas at UAMS, the surgeon who had treated him two years ago when he'd had the Giant Cell Tumor at the top of his fibula. At first Mike had an appointment for Friday, 5 days away, but throughout the day he talked to the nurses at UAMS until finally he asked me if I would be able to take him in right then so the doctor could see him that afternoon before three.  It was a long trip to Little Rock, the biggest part of it being the walk across the house, down the three steps into the living area and the one big step down into the garage.  After that, pushing and pulling himself up into the back seat of the car must have seemed like a piece of cake and when we got to UAMS there was a wheel chair and a technician waiting to take him into the hospital itself.  

First we went to radiology for xrays then we went to the 7th floor clinic to see Doctor Nicholas, with half an hour to spare before the 3 o'clock deadline.  Dr. Nicholas showed us on the xrays that Mike did indeed have a break in his fibula and a tear in some tissue that needed repair.  He said that he could not do the surgery until Wednesday but that he would check Mike into the hospital to stay off his leg and not bend his knee or do any more damage before the surgery that would be first thing in the morning on Wednesday.  He introduced the resident surgeon, Dr. Dooley.  Since Mike was only in the hospital so he could stay off his leg, the time before surgery was easy with nothing to be done but to watch tv and play on the computer tablet.  I spent the night Monday because it was dark before we were finished checking Mike into his hospital room and it's a long way to drive home.  On Tuesday, though, I decided to drive back to Bismarck and do the things I had not been able to do before I left and get ready for what I knew might be a long time gone if Mike's surgery the next day didn't go as planned.  I went home via Hot Springs so I could fill up with gas at a familiar place and so I could get a couple of prescriptions filled for Sonny (who'd been to the doctor the Thursday before in Amity) and stock up on milk and eggs so Sonny would have provisions if I was gone for a long time.  That night I showered in my very own shower and slept in my very own bed.  I'd talked to Mike on the phone and he'd warned me that the weather was going to be bad on Wednesday, so I left as soon as it got daylight hoping to be back in Little Rock in time for Mike's nine thirty surgery.  I did get there a little after nine, but when I got to his room Mike was gone.  I hurried down to the 2nd floor but Mike had already gone into the surgery rooms.  I missed him completely, but I checked in at the desk and waited until about noon when Doctor Nicholas came to talk to me and tell me that the surgery had gone fine.  (They talked about replacing Mike's knee, but they repaired the bone break and tissue damage instead using metal rods in the top of the bone and cement and sutures to put it all back in place to heal.)  Mike got out of recovery and back into his room a little after four.  And then it was a night of him being groggy or asleep and me watching tv or using my laptop.  Thursday was a day of Mike in pain.  There was not so much groaning as one might have expected though and several of Mike's family and friends called to talk to him.  The hospital is very efficient and comfortable and everyone who works there is very nice.  When the doctors made their rounds on Thursday they told Mike that he could go home as soon as he was ready.  On Friday they made arrangements for him to check out and about noon we headed for home.  Again it was a chore to take Mike from the car thru the garage, across the living area, up the stairs and down the hall into his bed. 

Now, all is well.  Mike is resting peacefully or awake watching tv or using his tablet, taking as little pain medication as he can and exercising, flexing his calf muscles and wiggling his toes and occassionally standing up beside his bed using his crutches and strengthening his good leg so it will hold all his weight.  I am still on double time having to take over some of his chores along with my own.  Thank goodness for Sonny who has taken on the rest of Mike's chores.  He has been wonderful cooking the three squares a day Mike needs to get back on his feet.  I think we will be going back to see Doctor Nicholas in Little Rock next Friday.  Meanwhile, on Monday a home health physical therapist should be coming to visit to make recommendations about what Mike might need.  There's nothing else to say about it all except ....get well soon, Mike.