Rant: hospitals and injuries

[planet planet]

How are things going with your son's recovery, Mike? I wish him a speedy recovery.

Not to hijack your thread, Mike, but please pray for one of my favorite cousins, Tim, who has been in the hospital since last Tuesday and will probably spend another 2-3 months there. He has heart failure and now sepsis and a 105 degree fever. When/if he recovers, we're told he's facing a life of close to house confinement (definitely won't be able to work) as a best case scenario due to his weakened heart. He's 51 and a total kid at heart.

[M1IRONMIKE]

He wrapped up like a mummy but the doctor said everything looks ok. The cartilidge has hardened however so he will have some deformity in the upper ear but they have a compression bandage and ear form to hopefully shape the ear where it won't look too different from the other.

I am sorry to hear about you cousin and will be praying for a recovery

[jim]

PaintItRed has had a tough hand dealt to him. Stress fracture in his hip Junior year Track required surgery with 3 pins. 6 weeks crutches, rehab, and then slowly trying to get back to x-country shape for the fall. That didn't go well, pain and x-rays and doctor visits and lots of head scratching and then shut him down and then more x-rays and more head scratching and then ... another surgery to get the pins out. Pins come out, 6 weeks of crutches, 6 weeks of rehab, and then last week waiting for the good news that he's cleared to run and we get ... another crack in the hip. Don't know where this one came from. There is some [expletive] going on where they think he might need a bone graft, because they saw this on an x-ray on Dec 1 and it's not healing. So 6 more weeks of the [expletive] crutches and then we get to see if it healed and if it didn't, back to surgery for a bone graft. That will be 6 more [expletive] weeks on the [expletive] crutches and then 6-12 weeks of rehab.

So he basically is going to lose his entire Jr. year track, but also his Sr. year x-country AND track season.

My oldest son only lost 2/3 of a Sr. year football season due to a torn ACL.

I can't [expletive] believe it.

Lot's of heartache in the jim house right now.

[M1IRONMIKE]

PaintItRed has had a tough hand dealt to him. Stress fracture in his hip Junior year Track required surgery with 3 pins. 6 weeks crutches, rehab, and then slowly trying to get back to x-country shape for the fall. That didn't go well, pain and x-rays and doctor visits and lots of head scratching and then shut him down and then more x-rays and more head scratching and then ... another surgery to get the pins out. Pins come out, 6 weeks of crutches, 6 weeks of rehab, and then last week waiting for the good news that he's cleared to run and we get ... another crack in the hip. Don't know where this one came from. There is some [expletive] going on where they think he might need a bone graft, because they saw this on an x-ray on Dec 1 and it's not healing. So 6 more weeks of the [expletive] crutches and then we get to see if it healed and if it didn't, back to surgery for a bone graft. That will be 6 more [expletive] weeks on the [expletive] crutches and then 6-12 weeks of rehab.

So he basically is going to lose his entire Jr. year track, but also his Sr. year x-country AND track season.

My oldest son only lost 2/3 of a Sr. year football season due to a torn ACL.

I can't [expletive] believe it.

Lot's of heartache in the jim house right now.

damn jim that sucks....i will be praying and hoping for a speedy recovery...

[JackofDiamonds]

PaintItRed has had a tough hand dealt to him. Stress fracture in his hip Junior year Track required surgery with 3 pins. 6 weeks crutches, rehab, and then slowly trying to get back to x-country shape for the fall. That didn't go well, pain and x-rays and doctor visits and lots of head scratching and then shut him down and then more x-rays and more head scratching and then ... another surgery to get the pins out. Pins come out, 6 weeks of crutches, 6 weeks of rehab, and then last week waiting for the good news that he's cleared to run and we get ... another crack in the hip. Don't know where this one came from. There is some [expletive] going on where they think he might need a bone graft, because they saw this on an x-ray on Dec 1 and it's not healing. So 6 more weeks of the [expletive] crutches and then we get to see if it healed and if it didn't, back to surgery for a bone graft. That will be 6 more [expletive] weeks on the [expletive] crutches and then 6-12 weeks of rehab.

So he basically is going to lose his entire Jr. year track, but also his Sr. year x-country AND track season.

My oldest son only lost 2/3 of a Sr. year football season due to a torn ACL.

I can't [expletive] believe it.

Lot's of heartache in the jim house right now.

Maybe it's time to start looking at the problem... Jim. This is your fault. Bad genes.

(Really sorry to hear about the injury, I understand how incredibly frustrating a non-healing injury can be. G'luck to your son.)

[jim]

PaintItRed has had a tough hand dealt to him. Stress fracture in his hip Junior year Track required surgery with 3 pins. 6 weeks crutches, rehab, and then slowly trying to get back to x-country shape for the fall. That didn't go well, pain and x-rays and doctor visits and lots of head scratching and then shut him down and then more x-rays and more head scratching and then ... another surgery to get the pins out. Pins come out, 6 weeks of crutches, 6 weeks of rehab, and then last week waiting for the good news that he's cleared to run and we get ... another crack in the hip. Don't know where this one came from. There is some [expletive] going on where they think he might need a bone graft, because they saw this on an x-ray on Dec 1 and it's not healing. So 6 more weeks of the [expletive] crutches and then we get to see if it healed and if it didn't, back to surgery for a bone graft. That will be 6 more [expletive] weeks on the [expletive] crutches and then 6-12 weeks of rehab.

So he basically is going to lose his entire Jr. year track, but also his Sr. year x-country AND track season.

My oldest son only lost 2/3 of a Sr. year football season due to a torn ACL.

I can't [expletive] believe it.

Lot's of heartache in the jim house right now.

Maybe it's time to start looking at the problem... Jim. This is your fault. Bad genes.

(Really sorry to hear about the injury, I understand how incredibly frustrating a non-healing injury can be. G'luck to your son.)

Thanks ... having now had two sons have their HS athletic careers derailed with injuries I realize that the hardest thing with injuries is the mental anguish. Physically obviously he went through alot of physical pain, but it pales in comparison to the heartache of not being able to do what he loves.

Last night was tough. He's spent 12 weeks on crutches - 6 starting in May and another 6 in late October. He was telling me in his room how he just hates them, how sometimes he will look at something as simple as changing out a video game in his ps/3 and decide it's just not worth the trouble to hop over or get the crutches. Then he said I've 6 more weeks of that, and if it doesn't heal then surgery and yet 6 more weeks. Man I couldn't keep it together, I just hugged him and unfortunately he saw a huge moment of weakness in me. Once I got my head clear I went back to talk to him, and told him that I wanted to make a deal - I would be allowed to feel sorry for him the rest of the night and he could feel sorry for himself the rest of the night - but then it ends. We wake up the next day and no more feeling sorry for anyone. Just take the next step, whatever that is and however hard it is.

Second opinion this afternoon but I really don't think it's going to be drastically different.

[AWvsCBsteeeerike3]

Yeah, jim, that sucks and you are correct. The mental aspect is very difficult, especially at that time and especially missing sports. But, you've got to stay positive. Like you said, just keep going and get it done. Even if it sucks.

During my ACL ordeal, someone told me that there were 3 things needed to fix/overcome/heal/become healthy/make everything right:
1. A good doctor/surgeon
2. A good physical therapist
3. A strong will

And even then you need a little luck. All you can do is stay positive and keep PIR upbeat and help him anyway you can. And make sure you have competent docs...

[jim]

2nd opinion today was the same conclusion but a more optimistic final outcome. He thinks the bone will heal on it's own, it's small and in a place in the hip not as critical as before. Getting him a contraption called a bone stimulator .. sounds like an electro-stim type thing-a-ma-job that he will use 1-2 x per day. Bone graft and yet another surgery is definitely a last option and one that he thinks can be avoided. So that's good, but the bad news is 6 weeks of no weight and let it heal. But long term prognosis is "excellent". Whether or not he can have his Sr. track season is up in the air still, but as long as the kid can get back to doing what he loves at some point. The good news with his sport is he can do it his entire life. Football etc... there is a very limited window.

[Radbird]

Good news, jim! Any other updates out there?

[planet planet]

My cousin Tim, who is a young 51, has actually moved out of ICU to a regular room at the hospital after being in ICU since the day after Christmas! So excited; it was my one and only birthday wish! The doctor's prognosis was way more negative than that.